EPISODE 20: Kangz to Kings!

The time inc is is just perfect because there's a lot going on in this particular market, that particular city, and this guy right here, he pretty much is very influential and recreating the culture, the foundation of this team and this team I'm talking about the Sacramento Kings just clints of birth to the playoffs for the first time in sixteen years. And this individual right here that we're going to have on today again, very special guests, and you know, I'm just you know, Mark sty go ahead

and introduce the man. Go ahead, jump in here. Coach Mike Brown, who Chris Haynes says should and will be. Now he didn't say will, he said should should be the unanimous Coach of the Year winner. Coach, Congratulations, you guys freshly clinched a spot in the playoffs. Just I guess what was it like waking up this morning knowing that Sacramento Kings will be in the playoffs for the first time since you were in Cleveland many many, many

years ago. You know what I tell you, it's it's it's a special feeling, mainly because you know what it means to the city, just as much to the organization as well. And you know, I've been sacramental for a short period of time and allow a lot of good people. They're very knowledgeable about the game, very passionate about the game, and that passion hasn't subsided even though they hadn't been

in the playoffs uh in sixteen years. They're still trying to rep sack wherever they can, whenever they can, and so to be able to be a part of this experience h clinch at this point in the season and continue to help uplift that that that town as well as the organization. There's no better feeling. What did you do? What did you do? After Clinton? Is there anything anything

specially you did? What? You know? What? So a lot of our wives came up, a girlfriend, significant others came up to to Portland because we knew we were going to be here for a few days. It's a short trip. And uh so when we got back to the hotel. Uh we had a little room down right off the bar in the hotel and we popped a few bottles of champagne, had a couple of time and listen to some good music while chatting it up. Is this the Nines Hotel? Yes it is. I said, that's my favorite

spot right there, favorite spot right there. I'm sure you wanted to clinch at home, but is there kind of to do it on the road. And you guys are all there kind of on foe and turf, but you're all there together. I mean, what is that like? You know it? Yes, you want to clinch at home because again you want to do it in front of your fans. And there was a lot of anticipation a couple of nights to go against the timber Wolves. But at the end of the day, you know, for us, it's just

about getting it done. And I told our guys this um not too long ago. I said, hey, you guys put yourselves in the position to be able to control your own destiny. And when you're able to do that, you know, at the end of the day, it doesn't matter really for us. Whether it's here or there, might except for the fact, like I said, you know, you you like your fans to have that opportunity to see

it in person. But at the end of the day, because the guys put themselves in this position, they had plenty an opportunity to do it, whether it's at home, on the road, and just so happy to be up here in Portland, and it feels it feels good either way. Coach, did you ever this is your first year as the head coach of the Kings, and you spent your time and Lakers, you spend your time with the Cavaliers, and then you spent time as his assistant with the Golden

State Warriors. Did you ever think or was there any doubt at all during the time that you would Golden State that you would get another opportunity to be a head coach in this league. I didn't know. You know, I'm the type that looks at things, that looks at a glass or a jars as half full as opposed to have empty. So I'll pretty optimistic optimistic person as

is I felt. If I if I kept you know, grinding and doing my thing and kept trying to be part of uh situations, that will not only help me grow and evolve, but also where you win is usually if you're in a situation where you win, more eyes are on you, and everybody usually has success that comes

from a winning situation. So I didn't know I felt being in Golden State, working for Steve and being around the great players that I was around and winning at that At that level, I get opportunities to interview, but you just never know what's going to unfold in those interviews. Most of the times when you go on an interview,

the club has somebody already in mind. But for me, it didn't matter because every interview that I went on UH, I felt like I learned, I got better, you know, because I spoke in front of a different UH staff and had explained my plan and had to dive deep into what the what the team was and where I take them, and and so for me to get an interview at this point was something I wasn't going to turn down. So at the end of the day, I'm glad it worked out the way it did. But UH,

you know, you never know in these situations. You just keep your fingers cross and keep trying to do the right thing, and maybe that happened, coach, Can you name the teams the other teams that you interview with you during your time to go to state. Yeah, I interviewed with Washington Wizards, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers. Obviously the Sacrament of Kings. I think that might think that might be it. I think it might be it. The New York Knicks. I also interviewed from the New York Knicks.

How did you come away from the ones that you didn't get? The only one that, uh really the only one that I thought that I had a decent shot at because I truly felt that they didn't have a candidate in place was the Clippers. Uh. You know, I knew ty Loose, He's a fantastic championship coach. I knew he had a leg up on me. Um you know uh in that interview process because of his track record.

Uh and how you know again how successful he is, but the type of person is, and then he already knew the players and so on and so forth, and they had a lot of trust and confidence in them. But I, you know, when I was going through the process, I really felt like the staff hadn't made up their mind yet or didn't have a have ty loose as you know peg as, No, he's the guy, but maybe

we'll see what Mike bring to the table. And and uh, you know, at the end of the day, obviously the job went to him and for me, uh, and that he got that job for me, I felt good because he's a fantastic human being and obviously a great coach. So I didn't feel like, uh, that was tough to handle not getting that one at all. But I was I thought I was. I thought I had a chance

at that one. Other ones, Uh, they're fantastic to the interview for but going in, I knew that for the most part, they had their guy in mind and it and it wasn't me. I think you ended up in the right spot. I'm gonna go out on a limb. Hey, you're one hundred percent correct. This is the spot I was supposed to being. Well, we talked to you know, thank you for giving the time for the story I wrote on the Keys and just a transformation of the

culture that everybody please go check that out. Brought that about two weeks ago on the Keys and Mike Brown's involvement in that process, because what what is what has it been? Like, you know, I want you to for people to hear it because you know there's a lot of bandwagon Kings fans now and so uh you got

so okay? Can you explain exactly what what it took for you guys to get from being an organization that was thought of as an afterthought, you know, just quite being honest, there was a lot of players, a lot of players that didn't you know, to workn't too fond of the sacramental Kings or free agents and you know problems with that. Can you tell me just about your process and revamping um the culture and the foundation of

the Kings, just your part. I know other people had a role as well, but I just want to tell you how you went into the situation. Yeah, you know the well, there was a three part I guess process for me when I looked at trying to uh change the culture. You know, everybody says that they want to win and as a as a young head coach, when when I got the earlier jobs, I felt like I

cannot work anybody I had control over that. I felt like I was organized, and I felt like, uh, I had a good feel for my exs and oos, but being around you know Steve Curry's last six years being with the players in Golden State, with Bob Myers at GM, you know, you learn a lot about you know, how they go about their business and the exs and oos are great, but they don't start and in with that. But the culture there is is second second to none.

You know it rivals that uh you know Greg Popovich in a different way, but the rivals out of Greg Popovich on many many levels. And and uh, those true guys, in my opinion, are the two best messengers, are two of the best messengers out there, and you realize being on around them. You know, being around Pop you learned

a lot. But I was really young around Pop, so I didn't really Uh you couldn't really appreciate everything that was being done at the time, nor could you really know how know the true meaning or how deep the things are, how deep things are that he was doing in or saying to the team. Being older, going through a lot of life experiences being with Steve. Now you're listening and you're watching the action. I used to take

a notepad. I used to carry a notepad with me a lot of times, and it was just because whenever Steve addressed the team, I wanted to jot down a note or two, you know, because I learned a lot from him, even though I've coached many more years than than he has. And and so for me coming into this situation, I felt that my biggest thing that I was going to attack right away was the culture and

the way that I put a plan together. And one that was the first thing I knew that there had to be a vertical and horizontal alignment between all of the units within the organization. You know, whether it's ticket sales, it's the medical staff, medical staff, the performance staff, the coaching staff, community relations. We all had all had they had their alignment of trust that was vertical and horizontal

across the board. And I was going to go about doing that by being present, uh, letting everybody feel my confidence, by engaging with them as much as I could, trying to bring all these group to groups together as much as I could. For instance, when we went on our coaches retreat, you know most most staffs they just go with their coaching staff. Well, we invited our front office

Monae McNair, West Wilcox. We also extended the invitation to Matina and Jr. And all of hierarchy in the front office so that they felt like they were part two of it. And and then you know, you also want to give ownership to your group, not just to the players, but to the people that are working for you and that are working in other departments. And I did that Basically.

I didn't go on the floor at all. Well, I tell you back, I went on the floor twice prior to training camp, and I was in the gym a lot. But I told myself, I'm gonna let my coaches handle it. They know exactly what they're doing. I want players to see that I have belief and trusting them, and I don't need to step out there every five minutes to make a correction or try to coach or show that

I could coach. And I'm just gonna watch it. I'm gonna be a fan, and I'm gonna talk and get to know these guys personally, and you know more, talk to them about their families, how our days going, and all that other stuff. So that was the first step, and trying to get the group connected, trying to establish that sustained winning culture. The second step that I wanted to make sure I did was establish a set of rules or principles and values that not only were upheld

by me, but we're upheld by it. Then all of the leadership within the organization, including you know, the leadership in terms of players on the team. And once you established that you know and your leaders believe in it, then everybody's going to follow that path. And then the last one was, you know, I'm a I'm a big role guy, and so trying to identify and establish you know, everybody's role while giving them ownership and defining their role so that at the end of the day, everybody would

embrace it. And you know, you can do three or three three things. You can reject it, which is not good. You can accept it if you just accept your role. What you're telling me is okay, I accept it. It means when things are going good, you get their foot in, but when things ain't going good, which we all know

happen to this business, and other foot is out. So I wanted to get it to get to a point for everybody that they can embrace their role and giving them ownership in um and defining their role was was a huge part of that. It was that in itself was a three step process. That we went through meant with the last step being, um, you know, we got everybody together and I just went down the line asking each guy I had up on the BIXS frame, these are the three to four things that we defined this

person's role. For instance, HB. These are in front of the whole team. These are Hb's points for defining this role. Read them out everybody saw. I said, HB, do you agree to this? Because once you agree in front of the team, then that means there's no going back. And each guy had to read it and say yes they did because they were a part of the process. And to me that that everybody embraced their role and once everybody was on the same page and and they valued

this as much as I did. I had everybody signed a contract and we have three copies that contract. One we carry with us, others are locked room downstairs at Golden One Center, and the third one is in our training area upstairs in the practice facility. Mike, I'm guessing that this whole approach is radically different from the three other times that you were a head coach. And obviously, like you said, you've accumulated a lot of wisdom through

through all these years. But you clearly had this plan and it's a three step plan. But how confident were you that you could actually implement it and make it work? Because just what was the confidence level? Could not have been high when you arrived there after sixteen years of nothing but lottery for this granchise. That's a that's a

great question. From the standpoint, my confidence was high, and I felt I would have an opportunity to take a swing at exactly what I said, the way that I wanted because they hadn't had success and they were looking for direction. And usually when people are you know, you know, looking for direction at a pretty high level, they're gonna give you a second to faith, you know. And the more small successes that you have along the way, that's the more leeway that you're gonna be able to have

to implement your plan fully. And you know Luke Laux, you know, we worked together in Golden State, so I I you know, I known Luke for years. We were close and Golden State, and you know, every job that I interviewed for basically Luke helped me out. You know, I'm an old head. I do know computers a little bit. I do know analytics a little bit. But you know, Luke's a young guy and he's gonna be a head

coach in this league someday soon. He's that good. But he helped me gather my information and prepare for every interview that I went on. So he, he and I when we knew that the Sacramento job was open the same majority. Luke was more involved in. Jordy was during each one of the processes. But uh when when when we knew Sacramento was open, we both looked at it. We were like, whoa, this this is a sleeping giant.

You know that. You know, you have two potential All Stars and Deer and Fox and domus a bonus, you have a championship veteran Inharrison Bars. Uh, they're going to get a high pick. And it looks like the draft was was pretty deep, and you know there were some other guys that you know you might be able to do some things with. You know, we going there and and have a chance to really put our footprint on

the direction that the organization wants to go. So I was excited about it from day one just because of the potential, uh not only potential for the organization going forward with the city and the facilities and in my opinion, the ownership and everything else, but also for the potential of us being able to do it we felt was right and growing this program the way that we wanted

it to grow. When you're trying to implement a new culture, you know, it's not always easy and a lot of times there are some tough conversations that need to be had because the team or the players have been doing something for so long that hasn't been the right way. So I want to ask you, is there a conversation that you can reveal where you had to have a tough conversation with someone and but you took it, you know, you took your head on and it ended up working out.

Is there anything that comes to mind where when you took the job there was a tough conversation that you need to have and how did it? How did it fare from there? You know, again, I go back to that's part of the reason why this was so attractive, because everybody was itching, you know, itching to just find a way to get out of the hole that they've been in. And so literally when we came in, especially coming in from coming in off of a an NBA

Championship run. You know, you got a lot of you got a lot of clout with what you're saying, and not just because of that one time, but you know I had done a part of six finals runs even once as a head coach and been able to say I've been part of four of winning it four different times,

you know, which is hard. There's a lot of people that hadn't even gotten there one time in their career, and so you know, the team that we had that we had inherited, um, you know, there was one guy that didn't want a championship on the roster, and that's Harrison Barnes, and nobody else even really experienced. I don't even think going to the finals, let along the conference

finals was conference semifinals. So again, um, there wasn't There weren't many tough conversations to be had, like maybe some other situations that I might have taken taken over. You know, I remever forget when I took the Lakers job. You know, one of the things I was explained was explaining something to COVID and you know, the God rest his soul. But and Kobe said, well, you know, when Phil was here, you know, this is how we did it. I was like,

oh shit, you you're good. You're good, coach. Oh, I said, oh shit, you know Kobe got a point, He'll got like fifteen of them. As a head coach, I was only there once to the head coach and I got a couple or you know, riding back to some player. So you know, so you know that that's a dynamic that I didn't have to deal with. Uh, in this situation. It was almost reversed for me to be acus of where I came from and what my issue was compared

to not only the players, but everybody else too. That was in the organization, for people in the front office, to people on the basketball side too. So uh, that's why that's part of the reason why you know, you really uh, even before the job for me was one that's why it was an extremely attractive job, you know,

to be had for us. So how do you strike the balance now of convincing your guys, yes, we clinch, but we also haven't achieved anything yet Because of all these playoff runs you've made, I'm guessing that you're not really satisfied with just getting to the playoffs, you know how, I'm saying and part of it is, you know, the messaging that we that we did from day one. You know, every conversation that I had wasn't about making the playoffs.

It was when we make the play house, this is what needs to happen when when Yes and our guys brought into it. I had you know, I talked to a lot of people when I took this job, just to pick their brain. And and you know, one of my best conversations I had was with Randy Bennett, head coach at Saint Mary's College. He basically took over a prential losing programs at Saint Mary's back in the day. They were the dorm out of I think they were the WCAC at first and then the WCC after that.

But he took that over and I asked him, I said, you know, first of all, what are some of the things that you did when you took it over? And then I said, what's the biggest regret that you had looking back that you wish you could have changed? And he said, uh, he said, Mike, if I could have worked on getting those guys to believe right away, we would have taken off a lot sooner than what it took us and I said, what are you talking about? He said, you know, at the end of the day,

I knew I was going to recruit good guys. I knew I was going to recruit hard working guys. I knew I had a plan to help us X and O wise to be in games and all that. But he said, we'd look up with three minutes to go in the game, and it's a one or two possession game, whether we're up or we're down, and there was just something that naturally kicked in for our guys, and then for our opponent. And for our guys it was like, oh, crap,

are we supposed to win this game? So there was that doubt, and then for the other team, they were like, Okay, this is the same area. Let's let's turn it on right now. Let's let's just kick their behind. And so when you faced that dynamic in a in a tight ball game, you know, the team that's supposed to lose

is gonna lose ninety percent of the time. And that's how it was a Sacramento I mean, we obviously we played against sacrament that the years, you know, you go through the game, it's a close ball game and then you know, three to five minutes ago, even guys, you know, but the players on the team, and you take the

time out and they say, okay, hey, let's turn it on. Now, let's turn it, let's let's let's check, let's kick it in gear, and let's take it to these guys and in this game and ro next thing, you know, they do it then going eight to two runs and you could feel and see the doubt and in the King's eyes and it's old. So for me hearing that, I thought that was that was big. I thought that was

really really big. And so everything I did U and the way I talked to these guys, uh and for for for me, I had to make sure that it added value to the belief that we can get it done, not two years from now, not three years from now,

but right now. And part of where I did that was every little success that we had along the way, even in the preseason, you know, you celebrated at the right way, like, Okay, see, I told y'all, if we do this or we do that, we're gonna go out there and kick ass, just like everybody else think they should go out there and kick ass. And this ain't no fluit because you guys have been working your tail off since the summertime, individually and collectively, and it's starting

to show. So every little thing, every opportunity, we worked on the belief, and I truly think our guys have a true belief, not just from what I'm saying. I think they truly believe that they should be competing for a championship like everybody else. Now will it happen, We'll see, But I do think that belief is there right now. I don't think I'm exactly gonna surprise you here, but I mean, you've been around the block. You know how

this works. If you guys are going to see the Lakers in the first round or the Warriors, it's not just gonna be Vegas. It will be no at alls like me who will say the Kings have never been here, the Warriors are favored, the Lakers are favored, whoever it is. How do you think your players will handle that noise it? They'll handle that, okay. But the reality of it is when we get in the mix, that's what I'm waiting.

That's what I'm waiting to see, because you know, and I asked our guys that they watched Golden State play New Orleans last at a couple of nights ago. You know, a couple of guys raise their hands, and so I said what stood out, and one of the youngest guys on the team, Davion Mitchell, did not hesitate. He said the physicality of the game. And I said, you are one hundred percent correct. I said, for us to get from here to here during the regular season, yeah, that

was pretty easy. Because if you're organized, if you compete, if you're healthy, relatively healthy, and you get a little lucky, it's pretty easy to be in the mix for a playoff spot or even a play in spot. It's hard as heck, I mean as hard as heck to go even from here to here, you know, especially in the postseason. And this is something they have an experience, and I said, a lot of it will stem from how physical the game's gonna be or on both ends for close to

forty eight minutes. And if you're not ready for that physicality, and I'm not just talking physically, but mentally also, if you're not ready for that, it's going to be a short hour. And so I'm telling them the truth right now, and they will know if we whether we play go to State or anybody else, they will know that those teams are coming for our neck. And as soon as they see an ounce of doubt in our eyes, it's

a rock. That's the one thing I'm gonna make sure our guys know is I don't care what's going on. We cannot give them a feeling of doubt from us. We got a ticket to a first, second, or third and third. Coach, I was hoping that somebody wanted the players when you asked them what stood out in that Warriors Pelicans game. I was hoping when the players said Chris Hayes stood out. I was. I was working to sidelines for that game. Coach. I was working to sidelines.

I don't know if you see me, coach sign I signed you up. I saw you, hey, hey, when you when you were asking that you had Draymond lick Yeah, Raymond, he was looking at you not like this the whole time before you even got to question out. So I saw you. I coach t t BA, rats job, rats father. He texts me and dray bond at the same time. Put us in this text Charity. He texts the picture of me and him together, her talking and he said,

these some ugly old twins right here. That's something a coach I wanted to pick kind of piggyback off the question Mark asked you about the playoffs. I don't know if you heard, but there's a shadow or narrative going on going on around the league about teams wanting to face the Kings, teams seeing teams seeing the vulnerability there. You know, I would guess if that is true, I would guess it is due to inexperience. What do you say to that? And have you addressed your team with

that narrative or talking points? That are beings that are that are circulating about teams wanting to see the Kings in the playoffs. So I'm let's see. I don't know if I can find it. He got bullets and board material already. I know that last answer. I felt like I was in the locker room already. So this so our video coordinator guy named Charles Allum chuck album and this is what I said him. Right here, the Kings of the Mark, Kings are stuck in the three seed.

That's where they're going to finish. The Kings of the Mark. All of these teams now weakness on the Kings, not only because they haven't been in the playoffs in seventeen years, but because they're not a good defensive team. And if you're the Warriors who was planning on a long playoff run, they love the idea of being able to drive in the first round series. That's an advantage. The Warriors want the six which is why coming back from twenty down last night was one of the biggest wins of the

season to get in stay in that sixth seed. So we know what the dart and they know what the Darreti is too, and you know what, that's fine because we deserve because we haven't done anything yet and we're as good as we think we are. We'll change the name. That's how I look at I hope everybody could hear them when you held your phote up. It is the clip of Chris and my old colleague Brian Winhurst on ESPN earlier this week talking about how the Warriors were

when they beat New Orleans. That was clutched because it kept them kept alive that three six matchup. But look, you know we're all know it alls on TV, and you know that I'm old enough to remember a time when Mike Brown worked for ESPN two, so he knows how those he knows how those TV shows work. Right. But you know, look, I mean speaking of no at alls, this happened before you were there, But I was certainly one of them. I was at the front of the line.

I could not believe that the Kings traded Haliburton. I was stunned. I just couldn't believe that they would move him. But Sabonus and fox have been so good together. They have shut all of us up. They look like as good a duo is there is in the league. What what what were you picturing for them in the summer before you actually even had them on the practice? For the one thing? You know, it's interesting with Foxy, I

thought he was a very very good player. The one area that I didn't know whether or not he could do is exactly what he's about to win, which is Clutch Player of the Year. I didn't know he would be able to close at the level he's closing now, and it's it's been phenomenal to be a part of and watching him during crunch times, watching how easy he does, it makes you think, Okay, not only is he an

All Star, but he could be a great player. Someday he's on track to be that because again, being a great player and and you know, and I'm not just saying this because we're where we are and I have Foxing and donors, but sometimes I think people use that term real loose or loosely. If you want to be a great player, your team has to win too, you know. And because if you're on a losing team and you're putting up numbers, somebody got put up numbers on that team, Okay.

But if you're putting up numbers and you're putting up numbers on a winning team and taking another level, you have the most points or buckets or how do you want to call it, in situations where it matters the most to win that game and your teams are winning team in your head and shoulders above above everybody else. And so to experience going through those types of moments with Foxing is something that you know, has been a

pleasant surprise for me. Obviously, his speed was something that we wanted to bring to the table, and that's what we fall can still on a lot, not just trying to play fast, but also really trying to get our guys to understand, spacing doesn't just have to happen in the half court. Spacing can help your pace in the full court. And so we value our spacing and transition just as much as we value our spacing in our half court actions because we want Foxy to utilize that

speed an attack before the defense is set. So that's one way that we decide that you know, that we thought about using with what we're trying to do, a way that we for domas Is is. You know, it was great because a lot of the spacing and stuff like that and our initial actions that we use in our early offense I implemented with the Nigerian team. Now not to this level because we didn't have the time, but again with the Nigerian national team, we felt we

were gonna have a lot of athletes. One of our strengths would be able to get out and run and so we needed to be spaced and all that other stuff correctly in order for that to happen. And so with a lot of those actions that we use in our early offense, you can either play pick and roll, you can play hit and handback action, or you could

play DHO action. And we introduced a lot of our stuff with this team using the DHO game because of Domus's ability to make great reads and help guys get great shots off of that DHO action, and most teams prepare just like the post of game. Pop told me that told us back in the day that you know, post of game is going to be extinct one of these days, because everybody knows how to double team the post, and you got the baseline and the sideline to a

certain degree to be extra defenders. And so your rotations and all your schemes out of a post double team were a lot these. You know, then trying to double somebody on the perimeter, it's almost the same to certain degree as a pick and roll. Everybody's scheme a million different ways to stop picking the pick and roll, starting with the blitz. And so although Foxy and Thomas at the end of last year they were one of the top three pick and roll combinations in the league. I

didn't want to be reliant on that. I wanted to be reliant on the DHO game, to hit a handback game, the space game, the pace game, because come playoff time, I wanted teams to have to adjust to us and not be able to say Okay, if we're able to blow the take away their pick and roll action, we're going to stop these guys from scoring. And so trying to implement that DHO game because of some bonus's ability was a big factor for us in implementing what we

did and started. Let let me add this real quick. For those that don't understand or know what DHO is, that's dribble handoffs dripple handoff offense. So wait and wait a minute on our show, people, everybody who's listening knows what that is. You would think, you would think sty But I just want I just want to make sure there's clarity out there, to make sure. I gotta say we are we are getting xs and those we're getting

coaching philosophy. I think coaches who listen to this are really going to enjoy Mike Brown running the gamut here. Well that's what that's what did a coach it? You got. You gotta try to bring a little bit of everything to the table. And granted, I tell you what, I've had a lot of great, great, great staffs in the past. You know Quinn Snyder's work for me, Darmin ham Boy Pierce, Jamal Moses. I can go all and knowing. But the staff I have right now, I have a staff of

future head coaches. They are really really good a lot of times, whether it's in practice or in the games. And so I'm really appreciative of the gather with right now. Again that's not a not to what I who I work with in the past, but I just want to give these guys a shout out because they're so coach you know, we'll let you out pretty soon. If I wanted to ask you about Vivette and he is someone who over the years, he's let it be known he has a little bit of a dis thing for the

Golden State Warriors. There's a little there's something brewing there. You know. He's always, you know, always trying to get out the Warriors and trying to see how can he take them down? And he definitely wants to be running the team who takes them down. So how was those conversations like with you? You know, he's plucking, plucking you away from that Warrior squad. That's that's doing something, you know,

and and also the intail that you bring. So when when you when you're having those initial conversations with Vette, what is that like and and before you even get the job, are you telling too much? Like do you have to be careful what you say because you might be going back to the Warriors? Like how does that

work for you? And you know, I'm pretty open about what I say a lot of times, even it comes to our stuff, as you guys can see right now, Because at the end of the day, if you want to be better than that other team or whatever you're hearing, you gotta go do whatever you do better than what they do. So sure, there's a huge step that still has to be taken to overtake other good teams out there.

And so our conversations over he just wants to win, and uh, you know, throughout the course of this year, getting to know him for me has been fantastic because he's extremely passionate about the team, the city. More importantly, he just wants to bring him winning product to the fans of Sacramento and the people that live in Sacramento. So it's been great. I couldn't ask for a better

guy to work for. We have a really good relationship and you know, you hear a lot of things in the past about him, whether it's this or that, and I've had often but good times working for him. And on top of that, you know you want to owner put his money where his mouth is, and he but far has done everything that we've asked him to do this year, so I couldn't ask for anything more. Well, look, Mike, we greatly appreciate the time because we've kept you longer

than we should have. Greatly appreciate the candor. I'm if Pop sees any of this interview, you might be getting a lecture about you're being far too open with the media, which we love. I don't know if he would approve this, but this is something I've always wanted to ask you. I can't believe I've never really had the chance to do it, or thought to do it when I saw you in person. But you went to Wartzburg High School

in Germany. And for people who don't know, Wurtzburg pronounced properly the home of Dirk Davitski, the home of Maxi Kleiba. Should we be including you as one of the Wertzburg's famous NBA exports? This is the crazy about it. So the club out there's the first bird DJK Kickers. I actually played for them before Dirk Nabitski did when they were in the third division. Back, I know I did. I actually so I played Germans semi problems in high school.

I played. I didn't get paid, but I played Germans in my pro ball and then I played American high school ball at the same time. And they were in the third division, so everybody on the club worked, you know, so they it was kind of like a part time thing for him. And I never forget the first game that I went to at halftime, half the team was smoking in the locker room, and I'm just like, what did I do? It was because they don't They didn't really get payed. It was more for fun and standing

shape than anything else. And this was their part time job. So yes, I could. I can say that Dirt Naviiski and I both played professionally for the first But have you or Dirk ever talked about this? You know, I never not death, I just talked. I told him I was from Verse Bird a lot of I played for the DJ Kokers. That is impressive. That is you just you just scooped us because I did not know that. That's good. Uh Like, like I said, he should be

not just coach of the Year. Get unanimous. You know, there's there's there's nobody who's done more this year compared to what this organization is franchises faced over the last almost two decades. This man right here, what he's done has been unbelievable. So I know a lot of times people in the East Coast tend to sleep on, you know, some of the West Coast teams. But you gotta pay attention to what the Sacramental kings have done and really

do your research. I'm gonna challenge my fellow peers to do their research when they're submitting those ballots. I know he's gonna get Coach of the Year, but I want to see you getting unanimous. It should definitely be unanimous first place. But can we can I get us shout out for Keathan Murray first Team All Rookie? Can I get a shout out for Domus and Bonus and and and Eric at the Aaron Foster All NBA. I mean, they're putting that some monster numbers on a winning team too.

And now this is one might be a little bit of a love of shot that maybe my leak month, you know, for six Men of the Year, you know, and then I got to give a shout out to my man Minnie mcmair give him some love. But executive years love to rejectutive years. So let's let's let's get it popping now if we want, if we want to be real about it for the second Middle Pens, they're not the Kings. It's the Kings now that love it. Wishing you great success in the playoffs. Mike, Thanks to

Mail for joining us. This was absolutely fantastic. I appreciate you guys happing. You'll take care, take care. Thank you. Well, that's gonna do it for this episod show up this League Uncut with my partner Mark Stein. That was Mike Brown, the head coach of the Sacramento teams who just clinsed a playoff birth for the first time in sixteen years. Mike is always good man, he's candidate. That's what we love about him. Hopefully that doesn't change. But you know,

great heck of an interview. But we want to encourage everyone to like, subscribe, tell a friend, tell anybody about this pod. I think we got some good content in store for you, and we're gonna keep going. We're signing off. But this League Uncut, this is Chris Haynes, Mark Stein. See you next week and that'll do it for us. See you next time. This league uncutters and I heard radio production Chris Haynes and Mark Stein