De’Aaron Fox breaks his silence on the Sacramento Kings firing Mike Brown

On Friday, news came to light that the Sacramento Kings have fired head coach Mike Brown after he spent more than two seasons leading the team from the sidelines. The Kings decided to part ways with Brown not long after the team suffered a close loss to the Detroit Pistons — which dropped their record to 13-18 on the season — on Dec. 26.

Floor general De’Aaron Fox has grown into one of the better players at his position in the NBA under Brown’s tutelage, and he expressed surprise at the fact that the Kings let him go.

“It was surprising,” Fox said of his reaction to the firing. “I found out a minute before everybody else did. I’ve been through a coaching change before. I think for some of the guys it’s the first time, but you gotta keep movin’. I think we’re — this is game 32, so you still have a long season to go.”

Brown didn’t lead the Kings for very long, but he still deserves recognition as one of the better head coaches in franchise history.

His regular-season winning percentage of 54.9 percent with Sacramento is the fourth-best of anyone ever to coach the team behind only Rick Adelman, Les Harrison and Jack McMahon.

When Brown first got the job, the Kings had a long playoff drought hanging over their heads and were universally viewed as a lowly organization. It didn’t take him long to help snap Sacramento’s drought, however, as the Kings won 48 games in his first season with the team and ended up as the No. 3 seed in the West.

Sacramento’s 16-year playoff drought marked the longest in the history of the NBA. Before 2023, the team hadn’t qualified since 2006, when the squad employed the likes of Bonzi Wells, Mike Bibby and Kevin Martin.

In addition, though the Kings have underperformed a bit this season, they still have plenty of time to cover ground in the Western Conference standings. Sacramento is four-and-a-half games behind the No. 6 seed Los Angeles Lakers with more than 50 games left on its regular-season schedule.

The Kings will play their first game of the campaign without Brown patrolling the sidelines when the team takes on the Lakers on Saturday night.

The contest should serve as a good measuring stick game for Sacramento with a new head coach leading the way, and hopefully Sacramento can put an end to its losing streak. The Kings are losers of each of their last five contests and are 4-6 over their past 10 games.