Brown, the Kings’ third-year coach, was fired Friday amid the team’s 13-18 start and current five-game losing streak. He was named NBA Coach of the Year in Sacramento in 2022-23, when the Kings went 48-34 and lost in the first round of the playoffs. They went 46-36 last season and failed to advance out of the play-in tournament.

Rick Carlisle publicly lauded Mike Brown for the job he did on the way to winning the NBA's coach of the year award.

Carlisle, who's also the president of the NBA Coaches Association, touted Brown's impact on the Kings' turnaround and the culture he built, which led to the popular "Light the Beam" battle cry. "Teams have the right to do things like this, obviously, but Mike's a great man and a great basketball mind," added the Pacers tactician.

The Sacramento Kings fired Mike Brown on Friday. He was just 31 games into his third season as head coach, and just two years removed from being named Coach of the Year after ending Sacramento's 16-season playoff drought -- as a No.

Among those to weigh in on Sacramento's surprising decision was Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, who worked with Brown for two seasons from 2003 to '05 in Indianapolis.

The Sacramento Kings fired head coach Mike Brown on Friday with the NBA team sitting in 12th place and in a five-game losing streak.

The Sacramento Kings have fired coach Mike Brown less than halfway through his third season with the team mired in a five-game losing streak

The Sacramento Kings fired coach Mike Brown on Friday, less than halfway into his third season at the helm. Brown, 54, guided the Kings to the Western Conference playoffs in his first year on the job (2022-23),