The Sacramento Kings have decided that enough is enough. Moments ago, ESPN insider Shams Charania reported that head coach Mike Brown has been relieved of his duties.
Brown was hired by the Kings prior to the 2022-23 season. In his first season in Sacramento, he led the franchise to the playoffs and was named Coach of the Year. The Kings had a 48-34 record that season and appeared to be on the rise. Unfortunately, they’ve been in decline ever since. Last season, the Kings missed the playoffs are getting knocked out of the play-in tournament.
This season was already off to a bad start for the Kings, but apparently their loss to the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night was the final straw. Brown was let go less than 24 hours after that game went final.
Brown’s final press conference as the head coach of the Kings was quite fitting. He ripped his team’s effort on both sides of the floor.
“I don’t know why our pace wasn’t there, and our physicality defensively, where we want to go and win the game and not ask the refs to help us win the game wasn’t there,” Brown told reporters. “I’m disappointed in all those things. Maybe a loss like this helps us, I don’t know. But we gotta wake up. We know a team’s gonna fight. We know the game’s going to get physical. We can’t look at the refs, asking to bail us out on the offensive end of the floor, on the defensive end of the floor.”
At 13-18, the Kings are most likely going to consider making major changes to their roster before the trade deadline. There have been some rumors about them moving on from De’Aaron Fox.
Perhaps the Kings will wait to see if the team improves now that Brown is out of the picture. Next up on the schedule is a showdown with the Los Angeles Lakers.
As for Brown, it’s unclear if he’ll ever be a head coach in the NBA again.
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