The Sacramento Kings have fired third-year head coach Mike Brown, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania on Friday.
The decision to fire Brown comes as the Kings are mired in a five-game losing streak — their longest since January 2022 — with all five loses coming at home. Sacramento entered Friday 13-18 on the season, three games back of earning a berth in a play-in game.
Sacramento has struggled to close out games this season, losing five games after holding the lead entering the fourth quarter. Only the Toronto Raptors have more such losses with seven, according to ESPN Research.
In his first season in Sacramento in 2022-23, Brown won Coach of the Year while leading the Kings to a No. 1 seed before losing in seven games to the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs. That snapped a 16-season drought without a playoff appearance for the Kings, the longest streak in NBA history.
Brown finishes his Kings tenure with a .549 win percentage, the fourth best by a head coach in franchise history, according to ESPN Research.
The firing comes after Brown had agreed to a contract extension through 2026-27 in June.