The Sacramento Kings made it official on Monday to hire Mike Brown as their new coach, hoping he can end the NBA’s longest drought without qualifying for the playoffs.
General manager Monte McNair announced Monday that Brown has been named to replace interim coach Alvin Gentry. The Kings fired Gentry after a season during which they set an NBA record by missing the playoffs for the 16th straight year.
“Mike has consistently demonstrated his ability to lead winning teams throughout his long and successful coaching career,” McNair said in a statement.
Brown is currently an assistant with Golden State and will remain with the Warriors through their playoff run. He previously had two stints at the helm of Cleveland, leading the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in 2007, and another as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers.
He will be the latest former Golden State coach to lead the Kings.
Kings owner Vivek Ranadive took control of the franchise in 2013 from minority ownership of the Warriors and immediately hired Michael Malone, an assistant from Golden State, as his head coach.
Ranadive also hired former Warriors assistant Luke Walton as coach in 2019 and hired Gentry, another former Warriors assistant, after firing Walton in November.
None could break the negative spiral of the worst franchise in the NBA in the last 16 years. They went 30-52 last season with Walton and Gentry. The .366 percentage was his worst since the 2017-18 season.
Since moving to Sacramento in 1985, the Kings have had just one successful cycle, making the playoffs in all eight seasons under Rick Adelman between 1999 and 2006.
Brown takes over the reins of a team that allowed the second-most points in the NBA.
FILE – Golden State Warriors assistant coach Mike Brown during a game against the Portland Trail Blazers on Nov. 4, 2019. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)