Doug Christie can bring stability to the Kings if ownership doesn’t get in the way | Opinion
Despite days of negativity and rumors of internal strife, the Kings ended their morning practice on Monday by gathering to sing happy birthday to someone in their group. In their personal space, away from endless questions of what has gone wrong, why the Kings lost six straight games and why was coach Mike Brown fired, the team was full of joy.
On Monday night, the purple and black faithful of confused and concerned Kings fans at Golden 1 Center got to join in on the love affair.
The Dallas Mavericks, without their big three —Luka Doncic, Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving — put up a good fight but the Kings beat a depleted opponent and finally snapped their damaging losing streak. The beam still works.
With Brown gone, even though the reason he was dismissed remains concealed, all hopes of success are riding on in interim coach and Sacramento Kings great Doug Christie.
Doug Christie’s message to his team
The best thing going for the Christie is a blank canvas.
He hopes to paint a picture of determination and brotherhood, even as darker narratives about the Kings are still festering on social media.
On Monday former NBA player and TV personality Lou Williams shared speculation that Kings leader De’Aaron Fox was frustrated with Brown’s criticism of him and that Brown may have ruffled feathers within the team by suggesting that veteran small forward DeMar DeRozan play off the bench. The implication was that Kings management had chosen to side with the players over Brown.
This didn’t sit well with Fox, who clapped back on X.
“There was never any pushback about anything,” Fox posted on X. “This narrative of us butting heads or me going to management saying anything is (BS). So you can run with that if you want to.”
Ironically, Fox elevated his play on Monday by finally listening to his former coach’s advice by channeling his anger into controlled aggression on the court.
Fox picked up a technical foul for bickering with officials. He was visibly upset, needing Domantas Sabonis to pull him away from a high-spirited debate with referees.
At that point, Christie brought his players into a huddle and got his first shot at molding the team his way.
“What I want them to understand is that it’s us,” Christie said. “Regardless of the whistle, I said (to the team) trust me that I will talk to (the refs) I will go at them, I will do everything that I can to shine light on whatever the situation is but that can’t derail what we’re trying to do on a night to night basis to improve. The process of us improving is facing adversity.”
Christie demonstrated Monday that he understood the clash of emotions his players felt as they tried to win a game and salvage a season gone wrong. Christie acted like a motivator and leader. If he can rally the team together and correct a team still making too many mental errors, this season could turnaround.
But the rain cloud that lingers over all this potential is an ownership that has not given their head coaches fair chances.
Kings ownership needs to be checked
Christie is the eighth coach under Ranadivé ownership and no coach has lasted three years under current management. Christie is not an upgrade over Brown. He’s a fresh start. A reset. Maybe a placeholder, maybe not.
The Kings have suffered from that instability The firing of Brown ended a brief run of success where the Kings appeared to be heading in the right direction until they weren’t.
Brown was treated disrespectfully considering that his two winning seasons before this one made him one of only two Kings coaches to post winning seasons in the nearly 40 years since the Kings moved from Kansas City to Sacramento in 1985.
It’s too early to tell if the Kings will regret their decision to fire Brown, but what’s certain is that the King’s ownership and the front office have failed to maintain a stable culture for their players. Instead, their star player in Fox has been left to face innuendo in the media, that somehow he is complicit in Brown’s firing.
Fox is taking criticism for a decision made by King’s leadership that needs to be better.
This story was originally published December 31, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
