“When you win, it’s Fox and Sabonis, when you lose, it’s on Mike Brown.” Denver Nuggets HC Michael Malone bluntly reacted to Mike Brown‘s sudden Sacramento Kings firing. After running practice and speaking to the media for 17 minutes, Kings’ front office called Mike Brown to fire him. The odd plot? Brown was about to board a plane to Los Angeles, already filled with players and staff when the news hit.

Meanwhile, Miami Heat’s long-running HC Erik Spoelstra shared his rare connection with Mike Brown after the 53-year-old lost his head coach role. Indeed, being a coach isn’t easy and this is not just about the NBA. When the team wins, we celebrate the players but when the team loses games, it’s always the ringmasters who’re under fire. And the Heat coach understands these matters pretty well. Thus, he sympathizes with his old friend Mike Brown.

Spoelstra shared: “Mike [Brown] and I go way back to the beginning. We were both video coordinators. He’s a great coach. What they did there is really hard to do. If you’ve been losing for 15, 20 years since Rick Adelman was there, and to change the culture and make the playoffs – you stick with it.”

Truly, it must have been a tough decision for the Sacramento Kings to fire Brown. Especially when they have no specific purpose or malice intended for the HC. Meanwhile, the latest revelations say who initiated the “Mike Brown needs to be removed” decision. Don’t you want to know all about it?

Who is responsible for Mike Brown’s sudden exit?

As Erik Spoelstra emphasized: “It’s just a really sad state of our profession.” More than the players, the coaches are dragged to the firing guillotine. But a move as sudden as Mike Brown’s removal truly came out of the blue. Just not too long ago, the ex-HC was talking about taking more responsibilities and finding the rhythm because he believed the Sacramento Kings were playoffs-worthy.

But then, GM Monte McNair thought that 12th in the West wasn’t the ideal plan. The Athletic’s Sam Amick and Anthony Slater reported, citing team sources that Kings owner Vivek Ranadive had the final say and ultimately gave the green light to pull the plug after practice Friday. But the decision to fire Brown was McNair’s.

“This was a difficult decision and I want to thank Mike for his many contributions to the organization,” the GM said Friday in a press release. Apparently, the Kings’ loss to the Detroit Pistons on Thursday was the last straw A defensive slip by De’Aaron Fox handed the Pistons a 1-point edge, clinching their shocking win. After the game, Brown didn’t mince words, calling out Fox and the team. However, as the saying goes, “some things are never enough.”

The Sacramento Kings have been chasing the championship title for a long, long, long time now. Their last win came in 1951, and since then there has been nothing. Nada. But the question is, standing as the twelfth seed in the Western Conference, is it possible for the team to go all the way up with Mike Brown removed? That’s something the Kings need to sort out.