Why De’Aaron Fox, Mike Brown make the Sacramento Kings the biggest losers of the NBA Finals
The 2026 NBA Finals will feature the New York Knicks against the San Antonio Spurs, but the Sacramento Kings will also be represented for all the wrong reasons.
The Kings are coming off a disappointing season where they went 22-60, and now the organization has to watch as two prominent former Kings take center stage. Knicks head coach Mike Brown and Spurs point guard De’Aaron Fox are not only battling for the championship, they represent what could’ve been in Sacramento.
Just three years ago, Brown and Fox led the Kings to their best season in two decades and took the defending-champion Golden State Warriors to seven games in the first round. That was supposed to be the start of a bright future, but it instead fell apart and now represents what could have been for Sacramento.
Here’s a look back at why the Kings moved on from Mike Brown and De’Aaron Fox, allowing them to thrive with other teams.
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Why did the Kings fire Mike Brown?
Mike Brown was perhaps the Kings’ most successful head coach of the past two decades, but that didn’t stop Sacramento from firing him midway into his third season. Brown led the Kings to 48 wins and a playoff berth in his first season, and 46 wins in his second season, but was unable to keep his job at the start of hist third season with the team.
With high expectations, the Kings started the 2024-25 campaign at a disappointing 13-18, which led to the Kings dismissing Brown from his role as head coach. Brown’s issues with the team seemed to peak when he called out the team in late December for not executing the proper defense in a close loss, with the coach especially singling out Fox.
Mike Browns full press conference, calling out his players, with some direct and indirect references to De’Aaron Fox, for not executing what they know to do and what the coaches are telling them. pic.twitter.com/aOHsOUgw96
— Matt George (@MattGeorgeSAC) December 27, 2024
Sacramento fired Brown less than 24 hours after he made those comments, as that loss to the Detroit Pistons was seemingly the last straw. Brown may not have lost the entire locker room, but he lost enough of it to lose his job.
«You can’t just throw your team under the bus like that,» a league source told ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne after Brown’s dismissal.
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While this single moment wasn’t the only reason why Brown was fired, it showed a continued disconnect between the coach and team. However, Sacramento has not been better off since, while Brown is now back in the NBA Finals.
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Why did the Kings trade De’Aaron Fox?
A few months after the Kings fired Brown, Sacramento sent Fox to the Spurs in a three-team trade that netted the Kings three first-round picks, three second-round picks and guard Zach LaVine. The deal ended a 7.5-year tenure for Fox in Sacramento after the Kings had drafted the point guard in 2017.
While Brown publicly criticizing Fox led to the coach’s firing, Fox actually said he had no issues with Brown’s decision. In fact, Fox said that the team moving on from Brown was what led him to preferring a trade to staying with the organization.
«I was like, ‘Yo, I’ve been here for going on my eighth year. If Mike gets fired, I’ll be going on my fifth coach,'» Fox said, via ESPN. «And I told them, ‘I’m not going to play for another coach. I’m going to play for another team.'»
In his first seven years with the team, Fox made the playoffs just once and it was with Brown as the head coach. Fox had 1.5 years left on his deal with the Kings, giving him leverage in his future.
Sacramento offered Fox a contract extension before they ended up exploring trade opportunities. Once it became clear the Kings were going to trade Fox, the point guard said he had the Spurs as his destination above all else.
«There was one team. I wanted to go to San Antonio,» Fox said. «So, a lot of people are mad at me, saying I handcuffed the team by giving them a destination. Well, this is my career. If anybody else is in my position, you’d do the same thing. It’s not my job to help build your team. I’m not about to just go where they want me to go. I wanted to have a destination.»
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Former Kings in the 2026 NBA Finals
The Kings haven’t been to the NBA Finals since 1951, when they were the Rochester Royals, but Sacramento will be well represented in the 2026 NBA Finals. The Spurs have three players who were once Kings as De’Aaron Fox, Harrison Barnes and Jordan McLaughlin once played for Sacramento. Meanwhile, the Knicks are coached by Mike Brown, who spent 2.5 years as the Kings head coach.
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