It's been obvious since the day he was hired that Doug Christie wasn't suited to be a head coach. That goes for the entire league, not just the Sacramento Kings. At some point, the Kings will pull the plug on him. The only question is how much damage will be done before that happens.
When the Kings brought in Mike Brown as their head coach, he was already a celebrated bench boss. Brown had been named Coach of the Year in 2009 for his work with the Cavaliers. On top of that, he had won four NBA Championships as an assistant coach with the Spurs and the Warriors.
Not only did Brown get the Kings to their first playoffs appearance in 16 years, he was named the 2023 Coach of the Year for his efforts. Sacramento responded to this by firing him. His next job was leading the Knicks to an NBA Cup and an NBA Championship in the same season in 2025-2026.
Sacramento chose to replace Brown with Christie, a former Kings' player who had minimal coaching experience and had never been a head coach before. Predictably, it's gone about as well as asking Shaq to play point guard. Calling Christie's tenure a trainwreck is an insult to trainwrecks.
The Christie situation is more serious than just losing
Under Christie's questionable leadership, the Kings finished 2025-2026 with a record of 22 and 60. Admittedly, injuries were a huge issue, a pattern that is already repeating itself this early in 2026-2027. Sacramento lost all five preseason and is currently zero and four in the regular season.
But this isn't just about losing seasons. It about bringing this franchise back to relevancy. It's about developing young players into superstars and key rotational pieces. It's about doing right by an incredibly loyal fanbase who has stuck by this dog of a franchise through 20 mostly terrible seasons.
Continuing down this path with Christie in charge will accomplish none of that. Simply put, he is not remotely capable of achieving any of those goals, something he has proven time and time again. This team is arguably worse now than they were a year ago. That is literally the opposite of progress.
A major rebuild of a team takes time and will inevitably be filled with setbacks, but there still has to be a sense of progression. Under Christie's leadership, that is most certainly not the case. And the longer it takes this franchise to do something about it, the more their fan support will shrink.
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