Knicks coach Mike Brown discusses Kings tenure ahead of 'emotional' return originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Mike Brown will make his first return to Sacramento on Wednesday night since being fired by the Kings less than two months into the 2024-25 season.
Brown, who was hired by the New York Knicks in July 2025, spoke to the media in Sacramento on Tuesday for nearly seven minutes to discuss his tenure with the Kings that ended abruptly and as a shock to the entire NBA.
Sacramento hired Brown in 2022, and his impact was immediate. He brought a winning culture back to California’s capital, helping lead the team to end a 17-year playoff drought as the Western Conference’s No. 3 playoff seed.
Brown shared what he learned from his time in Sacramento.
“Every day you feel like you’re learning, whether you’re learning from something good or something bad,” Brown said (h/t CBS13’s Jake Gadon). “But there are a lot of stuff I learned. Trying to figure out different types of problems we had. Trying to enhance whatever we had that was good here. There’s just a tremendous lateral growth that I went through here. Not just on the floor, but out in the community, too.
“I really enjoyed being out in the community and getting to know the people out there. That was a lot of fun as well.”
The “Beam Team” Kings won 48 games during Brown’s first season as head coach. He was awarded Coach of the Year, and then-general manager Monte McNair was named Executive of the Year.
Sacramento won two games less the following season, but the Western Conference shakeup dropped the Kings all the way to the ninth seed.
The Kings defeated the Warriors in the first Play-In game but fell to the New Orleans Pelicans in the second game that would have sent them to a first-round playoff series.
After making the playoffs in his first season and falling just short in his second, there was increased pressure riding on Brown and the Kings entering the 2024-25 season. But a 13-18 start to the campaign was enough for Kings ownership and front office to part ways with Brown, as he was fired while driving to the airport for a road trip.
Brown was asked if he was surprised that he wasn’t given more leeway after the newfound success and culture refresh he brought to the city.
“Those situations, it’s part of life. Sometimes things happen. You may think one thing, you may think another thing, but at the end of the day, who knows? The best thing you can do in life is keep moving forward. That’s what myself and my family has done. We really love New York. We’ve embraced the change.
” … [There are] a lot of good things if you keep your mind present and moving forward, and that’s what we’ve done. We’ve really enjoyed our time being in New York, even though it’s been a short amount of time so far.”
Brown was let go on Dec. 27, 2024. He didn’t land — or seek — another NBA job the rest of the season.
Instead, he chose to utilize the time to travel with his wife, never letting the thought of his Kings tenure potentially being his last NBA head-coaching gig.
“I never really think that way,” he said. “When it happened, you process it real quickly and then literally, my wife and I went to Australia, then from there we went to Brooklyn, then we went to Puerto Vallarta and then we went to St. Barts. It’s life, you know? You keep moving forward. You can really beat yourself up if you try to guess or figure out what should’ve happened, why it happened, what could’ve happened, all that stuff. So, life is short. I try to embrace it.
“I enjoy what I can enjoy and control what I can control. If I can’t control it, try to find something else to do.”
Brown said he doesn’t have any regrets from his time in Sacramento, but rather thinks about the “what-ifs” from the injuries the team sustained in his second year.
Former starting Kings shooting guard Kevin Huerter suffered a season-ending shoulder injury in March. A few weeks later, Malik Monk, the runner-up for Sixth Man of the Year, also was ruled out for the remainder of the season due to a calf injury.
Brown believes the Kings would have won 50 games had they not lost those players to injuries.
After Brown was fired, Doug Christie replaced him as interim head coach. Christie had the interim tag removed from his title for the 2025-26 season, in which the Kings currently hold a 10-30 record.
A lot has changed since the last time Brown stepped into the Golden 1 Center building. Most notably, former Kings franchise point guard De’Aaron Fox was traded to the San Antonio Spurs last February. The Kings also hired Scott Perry as their new general manager after relieving McNair of his duties.
Brown was asked about the massive turnover since his departure, but he kept his response vague.
“Not being here, you don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors,” Brown said. “So I don’t think much about it. They have their reasons for doing it because they’re here every day and I’m not. I can’t say much on that.”
One Kings player who remains from the Beam Team era is fourth-year forward Keegan Murray, someone Brown said he loves and is excited to see, as evidenced by his “KEEGAN! MURRAY!” chant.
Brown is focused on his new team, the Knicks, who are 25-14 and the No. 2 seed in the East, but he acknowledged it will be an emotional night as he steps into the building where he has many unforgettable memories in a city he still has a lot of love for.
“I think the crowd will be good,” Brown said. “You never know. I enjoyed my time here. I enjoyed the fans here. Hopefully, they appreciate what we accomplished while I was here. … The reality of it is, coming back here, a place we really enjoyed, yeah, it’s a little emotional.
“But at the end of the day, the fans, if they cheer me or hug me when they see me, trust me, they want to kick my ass and the Knicks’ ass. And we want to do the same.”
Touché.
