Sacramento Kings Fire Head Coach Mike Brown, Name Jackie Christie’s Husband Doug as Interim

The Sacramento Kings have parted ways with head coach Mike Brown.

General manager Monte McNair called the move a “difficult decision” and thanked Brown for his work. Assistant Doug Christie will take over as interim coach, with his first game coming Saturday night at the Los Angeles Lakers. Christie has been an assistant with the Kings since 2021-22 and played in Sacramento for five of his 15 NBA seasons.

Sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania that the Kings informed Brown of the firing on a phone call while he was driving to the team plane for a flight to Los Angeles. The Kings made the decision to part with Brown midafternoon and decided to call him before he entered the plane, sources said.

Brown’s firing comes as the Kings are mired in their longest losing streak since January 2022 — with all five loses coming at home. Sacramento is 13-18 and three games back of earning a berth in a play-in game.

The Kings have lost an NBA-worst nine games this season after leading in the fourth quarter with the most woeful one coming in Brown’s final game as coach Thursday night against the Detroit Pistons.

Sacramento led by 10 points with less than three minutes to play only to collapse down the stretch. Jaden Ivey converted a four-point play with 3 seconds left when he made a 3-pointer in the right corner and was fouled by De’Aaron Fox. That gave the Pistons a 114-113 win, leaving the Kings in 12th place in the Western Conference.

The Kings came into the season with hopes of finishing in the top six in the West and avoiding the play-in tournament after acquiring DeMar DeRozan in a sign-and-trade deal over the summer to add to a core that featured Fox, Domantas Sabonis and Keegan Murray.

Fox, who is in the second-to-last year of his five-year, $163 million contract, declined to sign an extension in the offseason. He said on a podcast with Draymond Green earlier this month that he wanted to be on a team that could “compete at a high level.”

Sacramento has been far from that this season, thanks in large part to an NBA-worst 3-11 record in games decided by five points or fewer. Brown publicly criticized Fox for his role in the game-winning play Thursday night, saying he should have been closer to Ivey instead of committing a foul on a closeout.

“You should be hugged up to your man at the 3-point line,” Brown said. “Everybody should, and why there was a closeout by Fox, I’m not sure. I got to go back and watch the tape. But for sure 100% we told our guys, can’t give up a 3, can’t give up a 3, can’t give up a 3, stay on the high side, stay on the high side.”

Brown won Coach of the Year in his first season in Sacramento in 2022-23, leading the Kings to a No. 1 seed before losing in seven games to the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs. The Kings’ appearance snapped a 16-season drought without a playoff berth, the longest streak in NBA history.

via: ESPN

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