When the 2026 NBA Finals kick off, there will be a few familiar faces to Kings fans on screen. Former Kings guard De’Aaron Fox and former head coach Mike Brown will both be fighting to lead their respective teams to a championship.
Nearly a year and a half since the fall of that Kings group, there’s no greater reminder of what could have been for them than this Finals matchup.
The Kings Were on the Rise
It seems like just yesterday that Fox and Brown led the Kings to the franchise’s first playoff berth in 17 years.
Fox spent just over eight seasons in Sacramento and was along for every high and low—in reality, more lows. The ultimate breakthrough for the team came in the 2022-23 season, after Brown left his assistant coaching gig with Golden State to take over as head coach of the Kings.
The front office paired up Fox with Domantas Sabonis—a somewhat controversial move at the time, given that it required giving up fan-favorite Tyrese Haliburton. But for the Kings, the Sabonis-Fox partnership started strong.
The team finished third in the West that season, pushing the reigning champion Warriors to seven games before losing.
But any hope of a long-lasting turnaround for the organization was short-lived. The team lost to the New Orleans Pelicans in the Play-In Tournament the following season and failed to make a postseason appearance after that.
Mike Brown’s Firing
When Mike Brown was let go by the organization in the midst of a five-game losing streak, many coaches around the league called it a classless move. Steve Kerr used the word “shocking” to describe the decision. Former coach of the Denver Nuggets, Michael Malone, referred to the firing as “awful.”
In the aftermath of Brown’s firing, Malone expressed his discontent with the way the split went down. He seemingly took shots at the same management group that had fired him when he used to coach the team. “I’m not surprised that Mike Brown got fired because I got fired by the same person,” he opined.
Malone continues with his frustrations. “He does his postgame media, and he’s in his car going to the airport in L.A., and they call him on the phone. No class, no balls.” The lack of accountability also rubbed Fox the wrong way.
Fox Wrongfully Blamed
Oftentimes, after the departure of a coach, front office members meet immediately with the media to acknowledge and discuss the split. The Kings didn’t do so until 40 days later.
“You fire the coach, and you don’t do an interview?” Fox said.
The organization scapegoated both Brown and Fox; Brown for the Kings’ tumble and Fox for wanting Brown gone. But in actuality, it was the opposite behind the scenes: Fox wanted him to stay with the team.
“So all the blame was on me. Did it weigh on me? No,” the 28-year-old admitted. “I don’t give a f—. But the fact that y’all are supposed to be protecting your player and y’all let that happen…I felt at the time the organization didn’t have my back.”
Rumors circulated following Brown’s exit, suggesting that a fallout between the player and coach led to the team’s fracture. According to the star point guard, those were false.
“I feel like there’s this perception that people thought we were at odds,” Fox said. “You can ask anybody in this organization: me and Mike have never had an argument. We could disagree on something. We talked about it, and it was gone.”
Before deciding to sign Brown to an extension in the summer of 2024, the Kings solicited Fox’s opinion. He made it clear that he wanted Brown along for the long haul.
“I don’t want another coach,” he declared.
The organization knew that Fox and Brown had been on solid terms. Yet, as the rumors grew, they stayed silent and never addressed them, letting Fox be the fall guy.
In A Better Situation
As the team entered a downward spiral and Fox’s relationship with the front office splintered, he decided to leave Sacramento.
Fox is no longer the primary option in San Antonio like he was with the Kings. He is playing behind basketball phenom Victor Wembanyama, a role Fox is happy to fill if it results in winning.
“I haven’t stopped smiling since I’ve been here,” Fox said back in December before facing the Knicks in the NBA Cup.
The Kings’ struggles to consistently remain competitive have been on full display since Brown and Fox left. The experiment of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Russell Westbrook failed dramatically this past season. Sacramento won just 22 games and landed at 12th in the West.
Despite the team going through a losing stretch in the 2024-25 season, Mike Brown undoubtedly helped change the culture of the Sacramento Kings during his tenure.
He helped break the 16-year playoff drought and brought back a standard of winning. Brown was also the first and only coach since Rick Adelman in 1998 to own a winning record in each of his first two seasons with the Kings.
The iconic beam, which was traditionally lit after the squad’s victories, has spent much of this season dimmed.
What Could Have Been
The franchise’s struggles are an indictment of their inability to draft well, along with their inability to identify and utilize star talent properly.
Sacramento has seen many former players and coaches excel after leaving the team. Tyrese Haliburton made the finals three years after his surprise trade to the Pacers. The Spurs will have Fox and former King Harrison Barnes competing for an NBA title. Mike Brown will be the coach on the other side, coaching the Knicks.
The 2022-2023 Kings looked primed for the beginning of a resurgence with their core group. Instead, a majority of the players who were on that roster are no longer there. Meanwhile, the franchise is back to a position with more questions than answers.
Brown and Fox have moved on from the Kings, and now one of them is guaranteed to hoist the Larry O’Brien Trophy. There’s no reason to look back on the past.
“I don’t really have anything to say,” Fox said about the state of his old team. “The grass is greener on this side.”
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