Mike Brown brings Sacramento Kings accountability lessons learned from Gregg Popovich
Kings coach Mike Brown is a big believer in accountability.
Brown learned a lot about accountability when he worked with legendary coach Gregg Popovich and Hall of Famer Tim Duncan as a young assistant with the San Antonio Spurs from 2000-03. Now, Brown is trying to bring a similar sense of accountability to the Kings, but he says that starts with him and his daily preparation.
“It’s one of my five values,” Brown said while preparing his team for Monday’s preseason opener against the Los Angeles Lakers. “I’m real big on it, but it’s a two-way street. Not just me holding everybody accountable. People have to hold me accountable, too.”
Brown, 52, explained he still draws on lessons learned from Popovich 20 years ago in San Antonio.
“I’ll never forget, way back in the day when I first went to the Spurs, and I was with Pop the first time,” Brown said. “I didn’t really know him, but I’d sit back and watch how he prepared for practices and stuff like that, and he was a guy who took a lot of time and went into detail preparing for practices. I asked him, ‘Pop, why is it the way it is? Why do you take as much time and thought and all that other stuff in preparing for a single practice or preparing for a time that you’re about to address the team?’
“He said, ‘You know what, if I go out there with some B.S., Timmy’s gonna let me know.’ … His body language and his facial expressions will let Pop know that what you’re presenting to the team right now is not going to work. So, having that accountability from our best players, all of our players, and the rest of the staff from me, is a good thing because I need to be sharp for everybody and I’m expecting them to be sharp, too.”
There was an example of this following Saturday’s practice after Brown saw something he didn’t like at the end of a 5-on-5 scrimmage. Brown felt Davion Mitchell was a little lackadaisical in the way he initiated a play with rookie Keegan Murray. With the team gathered at midcourt, Brown took the opportunity to tell Mitchell — and starting point guard De’Aaron Fox — that kind of effort will “get our ass kicked.”
“We can’t have that from you or you,” Brown said, looking to Mitchell and then Fox. “… Make sense?”
Fox said Brown is communicating in a way that has been well received.
“You can’t be afraid to say something,” Fox said. “Mike is going to say something about everything. If it’s small, he’s going to say something. If it’s big, he’s going to say something. I think that’s one thing that good teams want and they need, because little things start to add up, and we’ve talked about that for years. A missed boxout. A slightly missed defensive assignment that can break down an entire possession. If he sees something, he’s going to say it, and that’s good, but also, when we’re playing, he’s going to say it, but not to the point where it’s going to slow us down for a minute or two and guys start getting stiff. So, he’s going to say it … and then we keep going.”
Harrison Barnes, a veteran forward entering his 11th NBA season, was asked what it takes for a team to achieve good accountability.
“Leadership at the top,” Barnes said. “And I think one thing about coach Brown, he is a details guy. I think, above anything else, we’re going to play hard and he’s going to be about the details. I think when it starts there and it ends there, I think that’s going to go a long way and I think guys are fully committed to buying into that. It’s everything (Brown) does. You guys have already seen it, I’m sure, to a certain extent. He is very particular about certain things. As a group, we know that. We have to be prepared for that and playing time will be rewarded as such.”
Several players have pointed to the attention to detail they’ve seen from Brown, who won one NBA championship as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers and three more as Steve Kerr’s lead assistant with the Golden State Warriors.
“Obviously, he’s been with some really good organizations, and he’s won,” said Kings forward Chimezie Metu, who played for Brown on the Nigerian national team. “So, I think a lot of stuff is just going to roll over into this in terms of guys paying attention to details, whether it’s on the court or off-the-court stuff, and guys just being locked in for a longer period of time. He knows what it takes to win and I think we all just have to follow his lead.”
Kent Bazemore, another 10-year veteran, said good teams know accountability and togetherness go hand in hand.
“My teammate gets on me, I’m not going to get defensive,” Bazemore said. “I’m not going to shut down. I’m not going to disappear. I’m going to take it in stride, because I know he wants what’s best for me, and we want what’s best for the team.”
Kings general manager Monte McNair said accountability is important throughout the organization, from the bottom to the top.
“I think Mike’s been big on that,” McNair said. “Really, what it means to me is that we set out what we want to do and what’s expected of our players, of our staff, of our organization, and if that’s not being achieved, then something needs to change, so we’ve always done that. Coach is going to be big on that at the team level, but it’s really the whole organization that we’ve got to be able to see progress and show progress.”
This story was originally published October 3, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
