The Sacramento Kings have fired coach Mike Brown less than halfway through his third season with the team mired in a five-game losing streak.
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 Brown was driving to the team plane for a flight to Los Angeles, where Sacramento plays the Lakers on Saturday.
The Kings made the decision to part with Brown mid-afternoon and decided to call him before he entered the plane, sources added.
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, entering Friday, 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.
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.
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.
Brown has a 107-88 record in two-plus seasons in Sacramento with a winning record in both of his full seasons.
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