Firing Mike Brown feels like a potential last straw for De’Aaron Fox

The Sacramento Kings have created a hectic, messy situation less than halfway through their 2024-25 season. Letting go of head coach Mike Brown after their 32nd game, a late collapse against the Detroit Pistons ended with De’Aaron Fox conceding a game-costing four-point play, has caused everything to heat up.

Fox’s standoff-ish quotes after their one-point loss to the Pistons stole the show. When asked about his mistake on the final play, the 27-year-old replied, “It doesn’t really matter. It’s not going to make anybody feel better.”

That shocking foul — which came after Brown emphasized the importance of protecting the three-point line in the timeout prior — and his comments afterward were on Friday.

On Saturday, the Kings decided to move on from Mike Brown and promote Doug Christie to interim head coach for the remainder of the season.

Uhmmmm De’Aaron Fox fouls Jaden Ivey on made 3PA while the Pistons were down 3 with seconds remaining.

Ivey made the FT and Detroit gets the win. Kings led by as many as 19. pic.twitter.com/6vFTdpT2E1

— Brenden Nunes (@BrendenNunesNBA) December 27, 2024

Combine that with Fox’s recent comments about wanting to see the team’s direction before committing to a long-term extension, and many assumed Fox was a primary contributor to the firing of Brown. That’s simply not the case.

Fox has had a history of being short and somewhat sarcastic in his postgame press conferences after tough losses. I’ve always thought of it as one of the ways he shows his frustration.

And while the fanbase understandably would have appreciated him to hold himself accountable publicly through the media, he did so with his teammates and coaching staff the following day at practice.

The guard’s postgame quotes fit with the idea that what is said behind closed doors is what’s important.

There’s never been an indication that Fox was frustrated with Brown’s public comments about him needing to improve. If anything, it spoke to how highly Brown viewed the guard.

Fox told ESPN‘s Ramona Shelburne that he would get daily performance grades from Brown and how he appreciated being pushed in that way.

“I’ve always been coached hard,” Fox continued. “I went to Kentucky because [former coach John Calipari] would be hard on me.”

So it bothers Fox that Brown’s harsh comments about a bad foul he committed on Jaden Ivey at the end of Thursday night’s unseemly loss to the Detroit Pistons, in what turned out to be the final postgame news conference of Brown’s Kings tenure, had anything to do with the organization’s decision to part ways with the coach Friday afternoon.

“I feel like there’s this perception that people thought that we were at odds,” Fox says. “You can ask anybody in this organization: me and Mike have never even had an argument. We could disagree with something. We talked about it and it was gone.”

If anything, Fox said Brown did exactly what he explicitly told him he’d do — because he knew Fox could take it and the team needed something to shake them out of the funk that ultimately cost Brown his job.

• “‘Nobody wanted to fire Mike’: What went so wrong so fast for the Sacramento Kings’ by ESPN‘s Ramona Shelburne

Brown would publicly state his awareness of coaching in a player’s league. He had referred to the fact that at any point, their star player, Fox, could decide he wanted a new coach, and that change would likely be made.

Acutely aware of that reality, why would Brown publicly call out De’Aaron Fox in the manner he has previously if he felt Fox wasn’t okay with it?

“I was fine with that,” Fox said. “He told me things, then he said it to the media. And obviously he still played me 40 minutes because he wanted me to do those things. He was being tough on that.”

This conversation between Fox and Brown came at the same time the organization was having difficult internal conversations about Brown’s future.

This summer, when management consulted with Fox before awarding Brown a three-year, $25.5 million extension, Fox gave his blessing, saying, “I don’t want another coach.”

• ESPN‘s Ramona Shelburne

Brown’s extension negotiations this offseason were far from smooth, probably speaking to the organization’s already existent questions about their head coach. The decision to fire him 32 games into a season before making any moves to improve the wing/forward position on the roster is laughable.

Keegan Murray and Harrison Barnes were the only forwards above average or better on both ends that Brown had in his two-plus seasons in charge. The same could be said about the forward help De’Aaron Fox has had since being drafted fifth overall by the Kings in the 2017 NBA Draft.

When first asked about the Brown firing at Saturday’s shootaround, Fox said Sacramento’s front office and ownership “knew where I stood this summer,” referencing his conversation about wanting Brown to re-sign.

Given the quick nature of letting him go 32 games into the season, it seems they were never committed to Brown in the first place.

Fox is known to have a good relationship with interim head coach Doug Christie. Still, the organization’s instability and willingness to go against his desires probably aren’t encouraging him to re-sign this offseason.

He’s always expressed his desire to win in Sacramento and how that would feel sweeter than doing it elsewhere. But it’s only natural to question what’s in his best interest at a certain point.

With Fox’s next contract likely to extend through most of his prime, he wants the chance to compete at the highest stage truly.

Sure, if Fox was a top-5 or even top-10 player, maybe he’d be good enough to lead this team by himself, but he’s been given minimal help in eight seasons and has seen nothing but the same mistakes being made around him.

There’s still a world where a trade before the Feb. 6th deadline turns the season around for this already talented (but unbalanced) roster, but that seems more and more unlikely with each loss.

If the front office and ownership aren’t willing to take his desires into consideration, that may speak to where their future plans lie as well.

Sacramento Kings 2024-25 Schedule

• Monday, December 30th – vs. Dallas Mavericks – 7:00 PM PT
• Wednesday, January 1st – vs. Philadelphia 76ers – 7:00 PM PT
• Friday, January 3rd – vs. Memphis Grizzlies – 7:00 PM PT
• Sunday, January 5th – @ Golden State Warriors – 5:30 PM PT
• Friday, January 10th – @Boston Celitcs – 4:30 PM PT

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