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The entire NBA world was stunned on Friday when the Sacramento Kings made the stunning decision to fire head coach Mike Brown. The move came at the end of a five-game losing streak that dropped the Kings to 13-18 after a heartbreaking defeat at the hands of the Detroit Pistons on Thursday night.
To make matters even more surprising, Brown coached at practice on Friday morning and spoke to the media like usual as the team prepares to travel to LA for Saturday night's game against the Los Angeles Lakers.
On Friday night, a few hours after the firing was announced, Kings general manager Monte McNair released a statement on the move, via Matt George of ABC 10.
“Today, Sacramento Kings General Manager Monte McNair announced that Mike Brown has been relieved of his duties as head coach of the team and Doug Christie has been named interim head coach,” the statement read.
“‘This was a difficult decision, and I want to thank Mike for his many contributions to the organization,' said Kings General Manager Monte McNair.”
The Kings are opting to move forward with Doug Christie as the interim head coach as they try to climb out of this hole that they have dug themselves early in the season. As it stands, the Kings are in 12th place in the Western Conference and are three games behind the Golden State Warriors for the No. 10 seed and the final play-in spot.
This Kings team is a bit of a clunky fit together after adding DeMar DeRozan, but they are still very close to having a much better record than they currently do. The Kings have lost an NBA-leading 13 clutch games this season, so they're seeing things go the other way in some of these coin flip games that are close down the stretch.
Maybe some of that blame should go to Brown, and some of it should go to the players to execute at the end of games. Regardless, if Christie can oversee some sort of turnaround in that department, this Kings team could be back in the playoff picture very soon.
