The Sacramento Kings’ dismissal of Mike Brown on Friday left a bad taste in some NBA coaches’ mouths, and they expressed it as much over the last few days.
The Kings replaced Brown with Doug Christie. Sacramento dropped to 13-18 on Thursday, which led to the decision to fire Brown. However, it was the way the head coach was fired that didn’t appear to sit well with others.
Sacramento’s front office informed Brown of the decision on the phone as he was driving to the team plane, ESPN reported.
Denver Nuggets’ Michael Malone, Golden State Warriors’ Steve Kerr and Detroit Pistons’ J.B. Bickerstaff were among those to speak out.
Malone had some choice words.
“I’m not surprised that Mike Brown got fired, because I got fired by the same person,” Malone said after the Nuggets’ loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, via ESPN. “And what really p—-d me off about it was the fact that they lost [Thursday] night, fifth game in a row, I believe. Tough loss. . . . They had practiced this morning. He does his postgame media, and he’s in his car going to the airport to fly to L.A. and they call him on the phone.
“No class, no balls. That’s what I’ll say about that.”
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Kerr told reporters he was “disappointed” over the firing.
“Mike is a great friend, great coach. I talked to him, and we all kind of know this is the nature of the business,” Kerr said, via NBC Sports Bay Area. “But it just seems so shocking when a guy is a unanimous Coach of the Year, a year and a half ago.”
Bickerstaff echoed Malone’s words, calling the firing “classless.”
“He deserves better than that, you can make whatever decision you want to make, we understand that,” he added, via The Athletic. “But the way you treat human beings matters, and it’s extremely disappointing to see a coach, a guy that you care about, a guy that you know how good and talented he is, be treated that way, you know, and it’s disappointing that people wouldn’t have the thought to treat people as human beings and show them the respect that they deserve, knowing the sacrifices that coaches make from their families, their personal health, everything, you know, that Mike has done for that team and that organization.
“You know, I just thought it was s—-y, to be honest with you, the way it was handled.”
Brown was in the middle of his third season with the Kings. He led them to the playoffs in his first year in 2022-23. He was 107-89 as the head coach.
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