‘NO CLASS, NO BALLS’: NBA COACHES REACT TO KINGS FIRING 2-TIME COACH OF THE YEAR MIKE BROWN
Not even two years ago, Rick Carlisle publicly lauded Mike Brown for the job he did on the way to winning the NBA’s coach of the year award.
And on Friday, Carlisle was among the coaches reacting with dismay that Brown was fired.
The Sacramento Kings dismissed Brown on Friday, with the team off to a 13-18 start this season and mired toward the bottom of the Western Conference — despite back-to-back winning seasons, something that franchise hadn’t managed in nearly two decades.
“The firing of Mike Brown today was just shocking to me and I’m sure all the people in our profession — men and women,” said Carlisle, the Indiana Pacers coach and longtime president of the National Basketball Coaches Association. “I had the privilege of working with Mike when I was in Indiana coaching the first time. I view him as one of the standard bearers for integrity for our profession. And I’m just absolutely shocked that that decision was made.”
Carlisle — who offered those sentiments, unprompted, to open his pregame media session before the Pacers visited Boston on Friday night — wasn’t alone on that front.
Denver coach Michael Malone — who was fired by Sacramento owner Vivek Ranadive in December 2014, and Brown was the sixth coach to hold that job in the decade since Malone’s departure — did not hold back in his reaction to the news.
“As an NBA head coach, ultimately, you’re going to get the blame,” Malone said. “When they win, it’s going to go to (Domantas) Sabonis and (De’Aaron) Fox. And when you lose, it’s going to go to Mike Brown. That’s the way it works.
“They have practice this morning, he does his post-(practice) media, and he’s in his car going to the airport to fly to L.A,” Malone added. “And they call him on the phone. No class. No balls. That’s what I’ll say about that.”
