As the Sacramento Kings' terrible, horrible, no good, very bad season wears on, it's not hard to see where the gaps are, mainly because they're everywhere. Not that things were that much better, but the Kings' fortunes took a turn for the worse after the firing of Mike Brown.
Somehow, Brown managed to coach this imbalanced roster to the playoffs. It was the first time any Kings' team had seen the postseason in nearly two decades, one of the longest playoff droughts in all of sports at the time. It was the pinnacle of the incredibly brief Beam Team Era.
That time seems like a distant memory. As hard as this is to believe, it has been less than a year since Brown was fired. That was quickly followed by the De'Aaron Fox trade and the reshuffling of the Kings' front office. Again, it has been less than a year, even though it feels like a decade has passed.
Now, head coach Doug Christie is leading the Kings to a historically bad start while general manager Scott Perry plans a long-overdue rebuild. Mike Brown, on the other hand, has coached the Knicks to the NBA Cup finals, where they will face off against De'Aaron Fox and the surging Spurs.
Mike Brown and De'Aaron Fox were the ones making this mess work
No one is going to describe the Brown era of the Kings as a huge success, but it's become increasingly apparent that the issue wasn't him. He was handed a poorly built roster, told to win with it, and fired when that didn't happen. Brown took the blame for problems he didn't cause.
It's interesting how Domantas Sabonis didn't seem to like Mike Brown too much considering Mike was the one who found out how to utilize Sabonis correctly on offense...
— Matt George (@MattGeorgeSAC) November 13, 2025
Yet, he seemed to be the one who knew how to make it work. Running the offense through Domantas Sabonis with Fox at point guard did lead to limited success in Sacramento. The Kings actually made the playoffs with that methodology, though it still wasn't a team built to win titles.
Any doubt about Brown's skill as a head coach has been quashed this season. The Knicks are second in the Eastern Conference with a record of 18 and seven, while the Kings are at the bottom of the league with their horrifying record of six and 20. Plus, the Knicks just won the NBA Cup.
The Kings' front office, most likely co-owner Vivek Ranadive, did not trust Mike Brown to do the job and punished him for mistakes he didn't make. Every win the Knicks tally, combined with every loss the Kings collect, just proves Brown right that much more.