Sun | Dec 29, 2024

NBA coaches react with dismay over firing of Mike Brown

Published:Saturday | December 28, 2024 | 12:10 AM
Sacramento Kings centre Isaac Jones (left)  is greeted by head coach Mike Brown during a game against the Denver Nuggets on December 16, 2024.
Sacramento Kings centre Isaac Jones (left) is greeted by head coach Mike Brown during a game against the Denver Nuggets on December 16, 2024.

ORLANDO, Florida (AP):

Not even two years ago, Rick Carlisle publicly lauded Mike Brown for the job he did on the way to winning the NBA’s coach of the year award.

And yesterday, Carlisle was among the coaches reacting with dismay that Brown was fired.

The Sacramento Kings dismissed Brown yesterday, with the team off to a 13-18 start this season and mired towards the bottom of the Western Conference – despite back-to-back winning seasons, something that franchise hadn’t managed in nearly two decades.

“The firing of Mike Brown today was just shocking to me and I’m sure all the people in our profession ­– men and women,” said Carlisle, the Indiana Pacers coach and longtime president of the National Basketball Coaches Association. “I had the privilege of working with Mike when I was in Indiana coaching the first time. I view him as one of the standard-bearers for integrity for our profession. And I’m just absolutely shocked that that decision was made.”

Carlisle – who offered those sentiments, unprompted, to open his pregame media session before the Pacers visited Boston on Friday night – wasn’t alone on that front.

Denver coach Michael Malone — who was fired by Sacramento owner Vivek Ranadive in December 2014, and Brown was the sixth coach to hold that job in the decade since Malone’s departure – did not hold back in his reaction to the news.

“As an NBA head coach, ultimately, you’re going to get the blame,” Malone said. “When they win, it’s going to go to (Domantas) Sabonis and (De’Aaron) Fox. And when you lose, it’s going to go to Mike Brown. That’s the way it works.”

Orlando Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said coaches understand that the job is often thankless, and that when a team underachieves there’s a risk of firings. He said it’s not his place to discuss another team’s decision-making – but made clear what he thinks of Brown as a coach and as a person.

“He compiled a record of 107-88 while he was there,” Mosley said. “He changed a bit of that culture in what he was doing. And I say these things not as a fellow coach. I say this as a close friend. He’s been a mentor of mine. And I know how good he is, and I know how he cares, and I know how he’s helped pave the way for so many of us that are in this game right now.”

Brown was the unanimous winner of the NBA’s coach of the year award in 2022-23, after his first season in Sacramento saw the Kings make the playoffs for the first time since 2006. All 100 voters from a panel of reporters and broadcasters had Brown atop their ballot that year.

Less than two years later, he was gone.

“You hate to see it,” said New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, who, like Brown, is a two-time NBA coach of the year. “You know, it’s part of what we go through. Mike’s a terrific person and a great coach. It’s unfortunate.”