thelesterlee
Friday afternoon, the Sacramento Kings relieved Mike Brown of his head coaching duties.
Just In: The Sacramento Kings are parting ways with head coach Mike Brown, sources told ESPN. pic.twitter.com/mNdn5EOv4U
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) December 27, 2024
Now, much of the focus will be centered on how Mike Brown was fired.
Brown led a full Friday practice, gave an 18-minute conference with the media afterward and was on the move, heading to the airport for the Kings road game against the Los Angeles Lakers Saturday night.
Until he received a phone call from general manager Monte McNair and assistant general manager Wes Wilcox before turning around and heading home to what I imagine was a wreckless Friday night while his team sat on the plane having just heard the news their coach was fired with no idea who would be Brown’s replacement.
And we all know, there is nothing worse than being stuck on a plane tarmac waiting there for imaginary, arbitrary reasons, like—if the plane isn’t ready to fly maybe we should have all stayed by the gate where we can sit comfortably and use the bathroom freely and buy Bugles, instead of being stuck on a plane wanting to hit your vape so badly while they de-ice the wings or re-fuel or find someone to coach your team.
Former Kings head coach and current Denver Nuggets leader, Mike Malone, chimed in to shit on the Kings organization for essentially throwing Mike Brown under the bus.
Michael Malone blasts the Kings for firing Mike Brown: “No balls. No class.”
Malone says Brown was fired over the phone on his way to the airport for the Kings’ next game.
“I’m not surprised that Mike Brown got fired, because I got fired by the same person.” pic.twitter.com/LoE4XKsvzQ
— DNVR Nuggets (@DNVR_Nuggets) December 28, 2024
“We’re going into a [Nuggets coaches] meeting this afternoon … I’m not on social media. I’m not aware of what’s going on outside these walls sometimes. It’ll probably take off six years of my life,” Malone began. “I go into the meeting and the coaches say, ‘you hear about Mike Brown?’ I said, ‘why, what happened?’ They said he got fired.
“At first I was really shocked and surprised,” Malone continued. “Then I caught myself. I said, why am I shocked and surprised? [I’m not] for two reasons. One, because as an NBA head coach, ultimately, you’re going to get the blame. When [the Kings’ win, [the credit is] gonna go to [De’Aaron] Fox and [Domantas] Sabonis, and when [they] lose, the [blame] is gonna go to Mike Brown. That’s the way it works.
“And two, who [Brown] works for,” Malone concluded as he launched his shot at the Kings. “So I’m not surprised that Mike Brown got fired, because I got fired by the same person. And what really pissed me off about it was the fact that [the Kings] lost last night, fifth game in a row, I believe. Tough loss, fouling a jump shooter. They had practiced this morning. He does his media, and he’s in his car going to the airport to fly to L.A. and they call him on the phone [and tell him he’s fired]. No class. No balls. That’s what I’ll say about that.”
You could look at this as Mike Malone protecting one of his boys against unfair scrutiny and against a franchise that Malone knows firsthand does dirty business.
OR
You could look at this as Mike Malone—whose Denver Nuggets are struggling to stay out of the play-in game—preemptively defending himself against his own inevitable firing as his team, too, has disappointed this season.
But don’t let the firing over the phone after allowing him to lead practice or Mike Malone’s WWF promo distract you from the fact that firing Mike Brown is the best case scenario for the Sacramento Kings.
Why firing Mike Brown is actually a good thing for the Kings
The Sacramento Kings are currently 13-18 after a brutal loss to the Detroit Pistons two days after Christmas. Jaden Ivey had a huge 4-point play to win the game for Detroit by 1 point thanks to a disgusting foul on the final shot.
JADEN IVEY 4-POINT PLAY FOR THE WIN ‼️
Pistons win 114-113 🚨 pic.twitter.com/9wuXDyj85V
— NBA (@NBA) December 27, 2024
You’re allowed to lose basketball games in the NBA.
You’re not allowed to enter a season considering yourself a championship contender and then get into a back-and-forth nail-biter with a Detroit Pistons team one year removed from having the longest losing streak in NBA history.
And it’s not even like Detroit’s new signings were giving the Kings that work. Tobias Harris and Tim Hardaway Jr were a combined 3-for-15 with 10 total points between them. It was last year’s bad news bears that beat the Kings.
Quick lol at Tobias for scoring 4 points. Truly an assassin scorer, indeed.
Sacramento is in the midst of a 5-game losing streak as they freefall to the bottom of the Western Conference.
They have just 3 more wins than the Portland Trailblazers—a team with the 3rd worst point differential in the NBA.
The Kings are neck and neck with a team that regularly gets blown out. Sick.
Adding DeMar DeRozan did nothing except make them a worse perimeter shooting team.
Shout out Mike Brown for winning Coach of the Year after the 2022-23 season and going on to have a battle with the Golden State Warriors in the first round but they lost that battle.
Then last year, they lost their play-in game and finished 9th.
Now—and I cannot stress this enough—they’re slightly better than Scoot Henderson and them.
We can get into the minutia of how Mike Brown was fired but I’d argue if Mike Brown didn’t want to get fired via Facetime after working a full shift in the morning then he shouldn’t have lost 95-122 to a below .500 Indiana Pacers team with no clue what they’re doing.
After competing with Steph two years ago, this team should’ve been at the top of the West alongside Houston and Memphis but instead, they’re a bunch of bums.
Firing Mike Brown allows them to now look up and down their roster and start their rebuild. De’Aaron Fox and Domantis Sabonis simply were not a good enough duo. Time to hit the draft and hopefully find that transcendent player who will carry them to the Promised Land.
Mike Brown will be fine. He shouldn’t have to coach a team that was clearly over him.
Oh, and you’re next Mike Malone.
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