Kings formally introduce new head coach

SACRAMENTO, CA (MPG) – Hours after parading through the streets of San Francisco to celebrate the Golden State Warriors’ fourth championship in eight years, Mike Brown was formally introduced Tuesday afternoon as the new coach of the Sacramento Kings.

Brown is the 20th head coach in Sacramento franchise history and the 12th since Rick Adelman departed the organization in 2006. Adelman is currently the only Sacramento coach to lead the team to a winning record. The Basketball Hall of Famer had a (.633) regular season winning percentage along with eight playoff appearances in eight years.

“I’m excited about being here,” Brown said at his introductory press conference. “The fan base is tremendous. I remember back in the day, them damn cowbells just use to ring in my ear and use to drive me crazy. I hope we get back to that point because now I’d love to hear them cowbells every game.

“I’d be the first one raising the roof and telling everybody to get up and ring those things all day long. The fans, they’re extremely passionate, they’re knowledgeable and I’m just looking forward to being around them.”

Brown has been as an NBA head coach on three separate occasions, with the Los Angeles Lakers (2011-12) and twice with the Cleveland Cavaliers (2005-10 & 13-14). In seven full seasons as the leading man, Brown has led his teams to the playoffs six times, without a single first round elimination. Brown was named the NBA Coach of the Year in 2009 after leading Cleveland to a 66-16 record and the Eastern Conference Finals.

“We conducted a very robust, thorough, comprehensive process and we wanted to ensure that we found the right coach,” said Kings general manager Monte McNair. “We did a lot of research, and it came down to really three key things for us: experience, successful head coaching experience; relationships, the ability to build relationships across the organization; and leadership, as a head coach and leadership for everything that we’re trying to do here.”

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During seven plus seasons as a head coach in the league, Brown has a winning record in both the regular season (.616) and playoffs (.566). The 52-year-old spent the last six seasons as an assistant coach with the Warriors, adding three rings to the one he earned as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs in 2003.

“We gotta get one for the thumb, I only got four!” Brown said to a media member while pounding the table with a laugh and a smile.

Brown expressed three areas of focus as he enters his new role: 1. An alignment of trusts within the organization. 2. A set of values upheld by leadership. 3. An embracement of your role.

“One of the main reasons that I was brought here is to bring some leadership in a lot of different areas,” Brown said. “I’ve been with a lot of different teams in my 30 years, and I’ve experienced what I believe is something that can get organizations over the top, not just in one year, but year in and year out, and that’s having a winning culture. My job is to lead in that area. Every organization out there in my opinion has a soul. The stronger that soul is, the better that organization will be. A strong soul in my opinion equates to a winning culture.”

It’s well chronicled that the Kings’ active playoff drought is the longest in NBA history at 16 seasons. Some new coaches may try and avoid questions about it, but not Brown.

“There ain’t no elephant in the room, you can speak on it,” Brown said. “We’re going to embrace that. I’m not coming here to ‘have fun and be excited enjoying the area.’ I’m coming here to win!”