Mike Brown sabotaged himself by forgetting number 1 rule in coaching a star

Ever since Mike Brown was dismissed by the Sacramento Kings on Friday (six months after he signed his extension), people have been discussing the decision.

Many people (A Royal Pain included) believe that Brown was being unfairly punished for something that was not his mistake. This Kings team had a roster imbalance that needed to be solved through a re-shuffling of the deck. Something that Brown never had the privileging of having happen under his wing.

However, with that said, it seems like Brown was not completely innocent in this situation, as his violation of the number one rule for coaching a star may have ultimately been the tipping point of his firing.

Mike Brown poked the bear that is De'Aaron Fox

On Monday, Lou Williams reported on FanDuel's flagship NBA show, Run It Back, that he had heard that De'Aaron Fox – the team's franchise point guard – had grown tired of being singled out by Brown.

Now, to be fair to Fox, he immediately responded to this tweet and denied any allegations of a rift between him and Brown. However, it wouldn't be the first time a star got frustrated with a coach, had an influence in their dismissal, and then denied the reporting on the matter (see Dwight Howard with Stan Van Gundy). Plus, the day before Brown was fired, he called out Fox for a bad foul in their back-breaking loss to the Detroit Pistons.

This brings us back to the central tenet of coaching we alluded to earlier. Regardless of what happened here, the NBA is a star-driven league, and that means in disputes between a coach and a star player (which Fox is), the organization is almost always going to side with the star.

Brown is a great coach, but in today's day of easily accessible film and analytics, there are a lot of smart minds out there that can command NBA teams, especially since so many teams play similar styles. As a general rule, it is harder to find a good coach than it is to find a top 25 player – which Fox has been in past seasons (and is arguably this year). So, it makes sense when front offices prioritize stars when they have them.

It isn't fair, but I'm sure Brown knew what he was signing up for when he became a head coach. He knew that front offices would always side with star players over the coaches and that poking Fox could lead to his premature demise.