When he was launched final June as coach of the Sacramento Kings, Mike Brown didn’t make any grand proclamations or wild predictions.
He talked about work. He talked about tradition. He talked about successful.
“One of the main reasons I was brought here,” Brown stated that day, “was to bring some leadership.”
Ask round, and no coach did a greater job main this season than Brown. He was introduced Wednesday because the unanimous winner of the NBA’s Coach of the Year award, a straightforward name after his first season in Sacramento noticed the Kings make the playoffs for the primary time since 2006. All 100 voters from a panel of reporters and broadcasters had Brown atop their poll.
“These honors don’t come around often so you’re very appreciative of them,” Brown stated on the TNT broadcast of the announcement. “I’m really appreciative of being in Sacramento. The fans, the city has been fantastic.”
Brown gained the award for the second time, including this trophy to the one he bought after he and LeBron James led Cleveland to a 66-16 file within the 2008-09 season. The different finalists this season had been Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault and Boston’s Joe Mazzulla.
Daigneault was second, Mazzulla third, and 14 coaches bought no less than one vote on the ballots the place the choice panel was requested to select their first-, second- and third-place decisions.
The Kings had been 48-34, the seventh-best file within the league and the primary time they had been a top-seven staff since 2003-04. They led the league in factors per recreation, had one of the best highway file within the Western Conference, snapped a run of 16 consecutive shedding seasons and gained a division title for the primary time since 2003.
“Accountability has been big since Day 1,” Kings guard De’Aaron Fox stated. “When he was hired, I told him that’s the most important thing, I felt like, to me was just being able to hold everybody accountable. … That’s definitely the biggest thing.”
Brown’s victory was the third main occasion for the Kings in three days. On Monday, they beat Golden State for a 2-0 collection lead of their Western Conference first-round matchup. On Tuesday, Fox was introduced because the inaugural winner of the NBA’s clutch participant of the yr award. Wednesday introduced the teaching award — and Thursday will see Sacramento making an attempt to take a 3-0 lead over the defending champion Warriors.
Brown was there final yr with Golden State as an assistant coach, successful his fourth NBA title, all as an assistant — the primary beneath Gregg Popovich in San Antonio, the opposite three beneath Steve Kerr with the Warriors.
“Everybody in our building just feels so happy for Mike and strongly about what he did for us while he for us while he was here, how much he contributed to our championships here and our culture,” Kerr stated earlier than the Kings-Warriors collection began. “We miss him, but we’re thrilled that he had this amazing season.”
Brown turns into the eleventh individual to win the NBA’s coach award greater than as soon as, becoming a member of three-time recipients Pat Riley, Popovich and Don Nelson, together with fellow two-time winners Gene Shue, Bill Fitch, Hubie Brown, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Mike D’Antoni, Tom Thibodeau and Mike Budenholzer.
Until now, Toronto’s Nick Nurse was the record-holder for probably the most votes in a Coach of the Year race, getting 90 first-place picks in 2020. And Brown topped two extremely deserving finalists on his strategy to the unanimous win.
Daigneault bought Oklahoma City into the play-in event and a recreation from the No. 8 seed in a season the place the Thunder had been broadly anticipated to battle — particularly after Chet Holmgren, the No. 2 decide in final yr’s draft, suffered a foot damage over the summer time and would miss your complete season.
Mazzulla wasn’t even alleged to be a head coach this yr, then was compelled to take over simply earlier than coaching camp when Boston suspended Ime Udoka following the disclosure of an inappropriate relationship with a feminine staff worker. But Mazzulla, solely 34, led Boston to the second-best file within the NBA and did so nicely that the Celtics eliminated the interim title and put in him because the full-fledged coach in February.
