Kings name Doug Christie interim head coach

According to Dave McMenamin of ESPN on Saturday, the Sacramento Kings made a coaching change on Friday. Mike Brown of Columbus, Ohio was fired and replaced by interim head coach Doug Christie of Seattle, Washington.

Brown had been the head coach of the Kings the last three seasons. In that time, the Kings had a regular season record of 107 wins and 89 losses with a winning percentage of .546. In 2022-23, Brown guided the Kings to a regular season record of 48 wins and 34 losses for a winning percentage of .585 and was the first ever unanimous selection for coach of the year. Then last season, Brown guided the Kings to a winning record of 46 wins and 36 losses, but was not good enough to get Sacramento into the NBA playoffs. At the time of the Brown firing, Sacramento had a regular season record of 13 wins and 18 losses.

Christie has been an assistant coach of the Kings since 2021. On Saturday, Christie was the Kings’s temporary bench boss for the first time. However, Sacramento still lost 132-122 to the Los Angeles Lakers to fall to 13 wins and 19 losses for the season. Sacramento is currently three games back of the San Antonio Spurs for the final spot in the play-in tournament in the Western Conference.

Considered a defensive specialist as a player, Christie played 827 games over 15 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers (1992 to 1994), the New York Knicks (1994 to 1996), the Toronto Raptors (1996 to 2000), the Kings (2000 to 2005), the Orlando Magic (2005), the Dallas Mavericks (2005 to 2006), and the Los Angeles Clippers (2006 to 2007). He averaged 11.2 points per game, 4.1 rebounds per game, 3.6 assists per game, and 1.9 steals per game, with a field goal percentage of .426, three point percentage of .354, and free throw percentage of .821. With the Kings, Christie averaged 10.6 points per game, 4.3 rebounds per game, 4.2 assists per game, and two steals per game, with a field goal percentage of .443, three point percentage of .362, and free throw percentage of .863.

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