The morning after the Sacramento Kings fired coach Mike Brown, they held a shootaround in Los Angeles to prepare for Saturday’s game against the Lakers. Interim head coach Doug Christie, who is expected to remain in that role for the rest of the season, ran shootaround for the first time.
Asked about his reaction to the controversial decision, Sacramento guard De’Aaron Fox told reporters: “It was surprising. I mean, I found out a minute before everybody else did, so.” Then he shrugged his shoulders.
Fox has been with the Kings since they drafted him No. 5 overall in 2017. Christie will be his fifth coach in the NBA.
“I’ve been through a coaching change before,” Fox said. “I think for some of the guys, it’s the first time, but you gotta keep moving. I think we’re — this is Game 32, so you still have a long season to go.”
A reporter asked Fox if, as a player, he felt any pressure or guilt when a change like this occurs.
“Pressure or guilt?” Fox said. “I mean, obviously, we all know the job that we have. You can be traded at any point, released, cut, fired, whatever it may be. I mean, I wouldn’t use the word ‘guilt.’ But that’s the nature of the job that we have. But, I mean, obviously him signing his extension this summer, we felt like we’d be together a whole lot longer, but that’s the decision that they made. But at the end of the day, too, he’s still getting paid. A great part of being an NBA player, NBA coach is those things can happen, but contracts are guaranteed, so.”
At the end of Friday’s practice, Brown had what The Athletic described as an “extended” conversation with Fox. According to Fox, they were “talking about end-game stuff, what we do towards the end of games.” He “definitely didn’t know that that little conversation,” which he called “really normal,” would be their last of Brown’s tenure.
Six months ago, after Brown signed an extension, Fox told reporters that it was great to have “stability” on the coaching front. Asked if his perspective on that had changed since then, Fox said, “Not at all.”
Before the team plane took off on Friday, Christie addressed the team, Fox said, “and after that, the plane ride was normal. I went to sleep.”
Fox said that Christie wants to “simplify” the offense, and he wants the team to “continue to be better defensively, be physical defensively.” He added that Christie wants the team to try to play fast, just like Brown did.
Sacramento big man Domantas Sabonis missed Thursday’s loss against the Detroit Pistons because of an illness. He missed Brown’s last practice, too, and didn’t fly with the team to Los Angeles. On Saturday morning, though, he took an early flight and joined the team in time for shootaround.
“Crazy,” Sabonis told reporters. “I haven’t been with the team for 30 hours, and a lot’s happened. Just shocked with everything.”
Sabonis “got here and went right onto the court,” he said. “We’re all focused on winning the game, but we obviously we know we haven’t been performing our best and we have to do a better job. As one of the leaders of the team, I gotta make sure that happens.” Sacramento is 13-18 and has lost five straight games, and Sabonis implied that its struggles cost Brown his job.
“Things are happening because we’re not performing,” Sabonis said. “At the end of the day, we know that we have a standard to be at, and we’re not doing it.”
When Brown got fired, Sabonis was sleeping. “I got woken up by the news,” he said. Sabonis spoke appreciatively of the two-plus years he spent with Brown.
“He trusted me in my career,” Sabonis said. “He put me in a position to succeed, and he gave me a lot of confidence.”
For years, Sabonis has worked individually with Christie before games. Christie has visited him for summer workouts, too.
“He’s very capable,” Sabonis said. “He’s been around basketball a lot, as a player, as a coach. He has a true, deep love for the city of Sacramento and the team. His only goal is to win a championship.”
Christie’s message to the team was “to come out and stick together, fight,” Sabonis said. “And just be us, be who we are and turn this thing around.”
Kings guard Malik Monk told reporters that he was “shocked, just like everybody else” when he found out that Brown was out. “But it’s the NBA. Anything can happen. So next man up, I guess.”
Monk has texted Brown, but they haven’t debriefed yet.
“He said he’s going to call me tomorrow,” Monk said. “I guess I’ll see what he says tomorrow.”
Under Brown, Monk played the best basketball of his career. What he’ll remember most about playing for Brown, he said, is “the energy he brought, the passion he had for the game, the passion he had for just being on a basketball court, being around the game. That’s what I took most out of him. He never took everything for granted.”
Monk then added, “Thank you, Mike.”
Asked if he had a message for Kings fans, Monk said, “Sorry, fans. We’re going to turn it around. That’s it.
“Concise and to the point.”