Kings coach Mike Brown, Sac State’s David Patrick back each other as basketball brothers
Their friendship goes back years, basketball lifers known for their good cheer as much as their coaching prowess.
Both are leading upstarts, eager to end droughts amid the pounding rain outdoors, and Kings coach Mike Brown backs Sacramento State coach David Patrick as much as Patrick does Brown.
Last week, Brown during a media session implored fans to pack Sacramento State’s cozy yet smallish gym — The Nest — for a Thursday night Big Sky Conference contest against Northern Colorado. Brown also tried to figure out how to do the school’s “Stingers Up!” hand gesture, initially wondering if it was a hang loose gesture with the thumb, or with just the pinkie.
Just the pinkie, coach. Brown soon had it down, and he had a message for Sacramento State fans, “Especially the students. Get your behinds to the game. That little gym needs to be filled every night because (athletic director) Mark Orr is doing his job to get a new arena there.”
Brown then offered a hearty, “Stingers up! We are with you, D.P.”
D.P. as in David Patrick, who coached Thursday’s game much like Brown does with the Kings, which is to say with all manner of enthusiasm. These coaches blast their vocal chords to bits, imploring defensive stops, urging ball movement, chewing on referees, scolding players for missed assignments and then loving on them for a job well done.
When the games are over, the coaches are spent.
Brown didn’t just promote the Hornets and his friend. He showed up to The Nest on Thursday, sitting in a baseline seat next to Kings star guard De’Aaron Fox. They returned the favor as Patrick has attended Kings games and practices. Besides, the coaches said, it isn’t just the right thing to do, but the fun thing to do.
The Hornets won 72-64 to move to 9-7 overall and 3-1 in the Big Sky entering Saturday’s contest against Northern Arizona. Sacramento State seeks just its third winning season since moving to Division I in 1993, just as the Kings seek their first playoff showing since 2006.
Patrick in his first year as Hornets coach has his team playing hard and inspired. While Patrick worked every inch of that game in nonstop coaching motion, Brown had it easy. He was typically radiant. He shook hands with Hornets fans young and old. He returned hugs. He gleefully grinned with scores of people who wanted to take a photo with him. Fox was in the background, soaking in basketball, but Brown played the role of coach, leader and man of the people.
“Great to have him here,” Patrick said. “Great to have Fox here, too. I tried to get him to LSU when I was coaching there, and recruited him hard.”
But no hard feelings, the coach said with a laugh. Fox spoke to the Hornets in their dressing room after the game before players dove in head first into their postgame meals. Fox emerged from the dressing room, all smiles. He said the chat was uplifting as he urged players to keep competing, to enjoy the game and their coach.
The Hornets were appreciative of Brown and Fox.
“It’s awesome,” Sacramento State senior guard Zach Chappell said. “It just shows how much of a great guy that Coach Patrick and Coach Brown really are. For Brown and Fox to come to our game after playing a game the night before with another home game (on Friday), it means a lot. It’s just amazing.”
Said Brown of his relationship with Patrick, “We’ve known each other forever and we’ve always supported each other, even from afar. We always thought that, maybe one day, our paths will cross.”
Both men called the other a “great coach” and the “right guy for the job” as Brown has been an NBA lifer and Patrick one in the college ranks. Both are defined by their kind ways, and how they morph into frenzied coaches once the ball is in play.
“We have an edge about us when it’s a game between the lines,” Patrick said.
Brown said that the community has a winner in Patrick, adding: “They don’t know how lucky they are to have this guy. I know he’s appreciated by me.”
Orr, Sacramento State’s athletic director, said a relationship between the Kings and the Hornets makes sense. Kings owner Vivek Ranadive has stopped by campus several times, including to loosen up his arm to prepare for a first-pitch throw after the Kings bought the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats. That effort started with a quick call from Ranadive’s crew to Orr, who then reached Hornets baseball coach Reggie Christiansen to unlock the baseball facility.
The appreciation goes both ways. On Friday during the Kings home game against the Houston Rockets, Sacramento State president Robert S. Nelsen was recognized for his years of work as he heads into retirement this summer.
“It’s a really cool time to be at Sacramento State and to be a Sacramento sports fan in general, a fun time,” Orr said. “It’s a renaissance for for sports in Sacramento with what the Kings are doing, what we’re doing at Sac State in football and men and women’s basketball, and all of us supporting each other.”
Orr added, “Mike Brown has come to our basketball practices. We’ve had Kings players attend our football and basketball games. I know Mike didn’t know how to do the ‘Stingers Up!’ right away, but he got it. How cool was it to see the head coach of the Kings telling fans to come to our Sac State game, and then he and De’Aaron Fox come?”
Orr said Brown and Patrick “are so similar. They worked for everything, rolled up their sleeves. They’re just such genuine people, which is why they’re great coaches, and they’re so embraced by the community.”