Nuggets’ Malone says Kings showed “no class” in firing Brown

ORLANDO, Fla. – Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone didn’t hold back in his reaction to the news of Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown’s firing, criticizing the team and owner Vivek Ranadive for showing “no class.”

Brown was fired Friday, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania. The Kings started this season 13-18 and finished in 12th place in the Western Conference.

Malone is no stranger to the Kings, having coached them for two seasons. He was fired by Ranadive in December 2014 and Brown became the sixth coach to hold the position in the decade since Malone’s departure.

When discussing the news, Malone said Brown’s firing didn’t surprise him because of “who he works for.”

“I’m not surprised that Mike Brown was fired because I was fired by the same person,” Malone said. “And what really pissed me off was the fact that they lost (Thursday) night, the fifth game in a row, I think. Heavy defeat. … They had trained this morning. He does his media after the game and he’s in.” His car goes to the airport to fly to LA and they call him.

“No lessons, no balls. That’s what I say about it.”

Malone was among several NBA coaches who reacted with dismay to the news of Brown’s firing.

Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle opened his pregame media session before his team visited Boston on Friday night. He called the dismissal “shocking for me and certainly for everyone in our profession.”

“I had the privilege of working with Mike when I first coached at Indiana,” said Carlisle, who is also the longtime president of the National Basketball Coaches Association. “I consider him to be one of the role models of integrity in our profession. And I’m just absolutely shocked that this decision was made.”

Orlando Magic coach Jamahl Mosley said coaches know the job is often thankless and that if a team doesn’t perform, there’s a risk of being fired. He said it wasn’t his job to discuss another team’s decision-making, but made it clear what he thought of Brown as a coach and as a person.

“While he was there, he compiled a record of 107-88,” Mosley said. “He changed a little bit of that culture by what he did. And I don’t say these things as a fellow coach. I say this as a close friend. He was my mentor. And I know how good he and I are. “I know how much he cares and I know how he helped pave the way for so many of us who are in this game right now .

Brown was the unanimous winner of the 2022-23 NBA Coach of the Year award after the Kings reached the playoffs for the first time since 2006 in his first season in Sacramento. All 100 voters in a group of reporters and broadcasters had Brown at the top of their vote this year.

Less than two years later, he was gone.

“They hate to see this,” said New York Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, who like Brown is a two-time NBA coach of the year. “You know, that’s part of what we’re going through. Mike is a great person and a great trainer. This is unfortunate.”

Golden State coach Steve Kerr said he understands the Kings have struggled lately but was still disappointed that Brown – his former assistant and longtime close friend – was fired. “We all kind of know that’s the nature of the business,” Kerr said. “It just seems so shocking when someone was unanimously named Coach of the Year a year and a half ago, and when you think about where this franchise was before Mike got there…shocking, really.”

The move in Sacramento is the ninth head coach change in the NBA in 2024 alone – and the 300th in the NBA since Gregg Popovich, the league’s longest-serving current coach, became coach in San Antonio in 1996. Popovich is currently out of NBA Spurs while recovering from a stroke.

Brown had four jobs during that time – he was head coach in Cleveland, then head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, then returned to Cleveland and had the job in Sacramento until Friday.

“He’ll definitely land on his feet,” Carlisle said. “But when you look at the work he has done and the turnaround he has achieved, it is really hard to believe that this decision was made. But of course teams have the right to do things like that. It’s her decision. But Mike is a great man and a great basketball player. Definitely one of the pillars of our profession.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.