After briefly tabling extension talks, the Sacramento Kings and their Head Coach, Mike Brown, have reached an extension that will keep him with the team through the 2026-27 season.
Heading into the 2024-25 season, Brown was set to make four million dollars. However, with this new deal, Brown will receive a pay bump to 8.5 million dollars, and he will also make that amount during both the 2025-26 and 2026-27 seasons.
Kings coach Mike Brown gets a $4 million raise to $8.5 million on the 2024-2025 season left on his deal and then $8.5 million annually in the two new seasons on the contract, sources tell ESPN. https://t.co/CGHiFSEPAf
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 1, 2024
At 8.5 million dollars per year, Brown becomes the eighth-highest-paid coach in the NBA on an annual level. For those wondering, here are the six coaches with a higher yearly salary (as of June 1, 2024).
Coach (Team) | Annual Salary |
|---|---|
Steve Kerr (GSW) | 17.5 million |
Gregg Popovich (SAS) | 16 million |
Erik Spoelstra (MIA) | 15 million |
Ty Lue (LAC) | 14 million |
Monty Williams (DET) | 13.1 million |
Doc Rivers (MIL) | 10 million |
Mike Budenholzer (PHX) | 10 million |
Mike Brown (SAC) | 8.5 million |
Brown and Monty Williams are the only coaches listed on the chart above who have never won an NBA title as the leading man. However, Brown has won three championships as an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs and the Golden State Warriors. He also was the head coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2007 NBA Finals (Williams also coached a finals team in the 2020-21 Phoenix Suns).
Big Name Coaches That Brown Is Making More Money Than
Since there are 30 NBA teams and Brown is the eighth-highest paid coach, that means that he is making more money than 22 current NBA coaches (man, math is fun).
Brown makes more than championship coaches Nick Nurse (roughly 6 to 7 million dollars per year) and Rick Carlisle (7.25 million). We don't know the exact amount that Michael Malone is making on the new extension he inked in November, but considering his name doesn't show up on any of the highest-paid coaches lists, it's safe to say his pay stub isn't larger than Brown's (Malone is, of course, another head coach with championship pedigree).
Some other coaching names who have had success but not championship success that Brown will now out-earn include Jason Kidd (roughly 4 to 7 million dollars), Ime Udoka (7.1 million), Joe Mazzulla (4.7 million), Quin Synder (8 million), and Tom Thibodeau (5 million).
A Well-Earned Payday
We can quibble about whether or not Brown should make more than X or Y coach. But at the end of the day, he earned every penny. Before Brown's arrival, the Kings were the most downtrodden organization in the NBA, having not made the postseason for sixteen straight years.
Since he's come to town, Sacramento has deaded that drought, making the playoffs in 2022-23 before winning 46 games this past season.
Now that the coaching situation has been resolved, it is time for the team to improve their roster so that they can win their first playoff series since 2004.