Mike Brown has a résumé that screams “don’t doubt him,” but these are the Sacramento Kings. So, of course, when he decided to take over the Kings after an eight-year break from head coaching, there were questions about whether he was making the right decision.
To leave a dynasty in the Golden State Warriors, where he won three rings in six years as an assistant, for a doormat up the road that hadn’t won a title since nearly two decades before Brown was born, when the franchise was known as the Rochester Royals? That was borderline crazy. Especially when you consider that for 16 years, Sacramento wasn’t just a landfill of broken promises and bad decisions but a graveyard of coaches whose NBA careers ended in shame. Of the previous 11 coaches to lead the Kings over that time, none had a winning record and only one, Michael Malone, received another head coaching job in the league.
But Brown didn’t look at the Kings and see a barren wasteland. He saw a franchise that needed a little watering, a little care, to look beautiful again.
“I’m pretty optimistic when it comes to most things in life,” Brown, the favorite to win NBA coach of the year, said recently, standing in the weight room of Georgetown’s practice facility before one of the Kings’ 48 wins this season.
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The Kings lit a purple beam atop Golden 1 Center after all 48 of those victories, a total that made them Pacific Division champions for the first time in 20 years and put them back in the playoffs for the first time since 2006. The third seed in the Western Conference, they have home-court advantage against the defending champion Warriors in the first round, which starts Saturday.
“I think everybody here, we want something bigger than that,” said all-star point guard De’Aaron Fox, who is on his fourth coach in his six seasons in Sacramento. The addition of Domantas Sabonis at the trade deadline last season and the offseason acquisitions of Kevin Huerter, Malik Monk and No. 4 overall pick Keegan Murray played a role in the 18-game improvement. But, Fox said, no addition made a bigger impact than “what Mike’s brought to us on both sides of the ball and instilling confidence in us, believing we can go out and win every game we can play.”
Brown knew positive attitude, while helpful, wasn’t going to be enough to turn perennial losers into the playoff contenders they had been under Rick Adelman in the early 2000s. The Kings were going to need a makeover to be the kind of organization he wanted it to be — the kind of organization he had just left behind.
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“I knew that our culture had to be right,” Brown said. “Every group has a soul, and that soul has to be right. Everybody has to be connected. My vision wasn’t to come here and be a one-hit wonder where maybe we make the playoffs but maybe we fall apart. I wanted to lay the foundation for something long term.”
The task of building sustainable success in Sacramento went beyond X’s and O’s. It required organizational synergy from top to bottom, and that required Brown to be visible and available. He made his way through the court to corporate cubicles for ticket sales and community relations, establishing mutually agreed-upon roles with his players and explaining what would be the core values of the franchise. He then drew up a contract that called for members of the organization to selflessly connect to the team, to be present and accountable and to embrace adversity.
Over a team dinner before the season began, he asked for everyone to sign the “All In” contract, from Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé on down to his two-way players. The Kings have three framed copies of the agreement — one that hangs in the locker room in Golden 1 Center, one in the team’s training facility and another that travels with the team on the road. Brown keeps a copy in his phone.
“As you get older, you understand that there are things in life that you can’t measure statistically that make a group of people a lot stronger than they should be in most people’s eyes,” said Brown, 53. “So that connectivity, if the culture is right, that can carry us a long way.”
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Brown was 35 when he took over in Cleveland, completing a 13-year climb from video coordinator in Denver to being an assistant under Bernie Bickerstaff in Washington, Gregg Popovich in San Antonio and Rick Carlisle in Indiana. Trying to find his identity as a coach while leading a prodigy in LeBron James through his formative years, Brown led the Cavaliers to a Finals appearance and two conference finals, twice finishing with the best regular season record in the league while James won two of his four MVP awards.
“We were both young, and we were both learning and leaning on each other,” Brown said of his five seasons with James. “As that time went along, I feel fortunate, lucky, blessed — the whole nine yards — to be in that situation.”
But he made mistakes typical of new leaders. He led long, rigid practices, more concerned about scratching items off his to-do list than reading the room. He was criticized for lacking offensive creativity, too. Over a four-year span, he would be fired three times — twice by the Cavaliers and once by the Los Angeles Lakers, where he had the indomitable responsibility of replacing Phil Jackson.
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Losing those jobs didn’t erase his confidence, and part of Brown is amused that so many are surprised by the turnaround in Sacramento. Brown missed the postseason only once in his previous seven full seasons and won a playoff round in each of his first six appearances. Among coaches with at least 500 games, Brown ranks ninth all-time in winning percentage (.612), the lone member of the top 10 without a championship. He ranks third among active coaches, behind Popovich and Steve Kerr, with whom he helped win a combined four championships.
“When I look back, there’s not much I would change,” Brown said, reflecting on his stints in Cleveland and L.A. “I was able to learn and evolve as a coach.”
While working under Popovich for a second time and then Kerr, Brown was able to use his time in-between head coaching jobs to observe how they provided consistent messaging to keep their players motivated and engaged. He discovered that what he knew — and how hard he drilled his players — was less important than the trust built from forging relationships.
Before he coached a game for the Kings, Brown wanted to know the people who would be running his plays. Still coaching with the Warriors, he used an off day during last year’s Finals to first meet with Fox in San Diego. He later traveled to watch Sabonis in the European championships in Germany, where they dined and discussed family and life. “He’s definitely put in the work and the time to have a different relationship with every player,” said Sabonis, who returned to his all-star form, facilitating at point center for — what’s even a surprise to the defensive-minded Brown — the most efficient offense in NBA history, with a 118.6 rating.
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Brown refused to discuss scheme until it mattered. And when he did, Brown revealed that while his reputation was on the defensive end, he can devise an effective offensive game plan to fit a roster with multiple playmakers and an abundance of shooters. Conversations with St. Mary’s Coach Randy Bennett, whom he befriended while in the Bay Area, helped Brown overcome one of his greatest challenges with the Kings: convincing players to believe when they’re not accustomed to winning. The results were most obvious in Fox, who in his sixth season has developed into the league’s most clutch performer, flipping the Kings’ record in games in which the scoring margin was within five points with five or fewer minutes remaining from 17-23 last season to 25-19 this season.
“Every little victory that we get, we have to make sure we celebrate it,” Brown said of Bennett’s influence, “so that these guys can see the incremental growth right away, so that we get in these situations there’s not that anxiety or fear that we can’t do this.”
For inspiration, Brown also studied great business leaders, such as former American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault, who once said the role of a leader is to “define reality but give hope.” Brown never had a problem with the first part but believes he kept it too real in previous situations. In Sacramento, Brown has been demanding but flexible.
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“Mike was always straightforward. A guy who was always going to be a straight shooter with you, so I think guys can respect that,” said Harrison Barnes, the only player in the Kings’ regular rotation with a championship ring. “They can follow that.”
Brown is now facing an opponent he admires and knows well. A win would only enhance what he has already done, restoring his reputation while resurrecting a dormant franchise.
“When you get put in leadership positions, especially if you feel like you’ve been a part of some success, you feel like you can help,” Brown said. “It’s a good fit for me here in Sacramento.”
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