Sacramento Kings interim coach Doug Christie drops debut

LOS ANGELES — Doug Christie rapped along to the lyrics to Ice Cube’s “It Was a Good Day” Saturday morning as the song echoed through USC’s Galen Center at the end of his first shootaround as interim coach of the Sacramento Kings.

More than 30 years after Christie was a rookie with the Los Angeles Lakers, he found himself preparing to face them in his first game since taking over for Mike Brown, who was fired Friday afternoon before the team’s escape down the west coast.

It hasn’t been a good season for the Kings. They came to Saturday as no. 13 in the Western Conference with a 13-18 record – having lost five straight and 12 of their last 17. And later that night they lost to the Lakers 132-122.

Change isn’t going to happen overnight, though, and Kings guard Malik Monk — who credited Brown’s “passion” with turning the franchise around the past two seasons — said the coaching change resulted in a shift in energy at the shootaround session .

“All spirits were high,” Monk said. “Everybody’s happy. Everybody’s ready.”

Included in that group was All-Star big man Domantas Sabonis. He missed Sacramento’s last game Thursday with an illness as the Kings failed to protect a 19-point second-half lead in a 114-113 loss to the Detroit Pistons.

Sabonis did not join the team on its flight to LA as he was doubtful to play due to the illness, but arranged his own trip on Saturday morning to be part of the first steps with Christie.

“I came here and walked right onto the field,” Sabonis said. “We are all focused on winning the game. But of course we know that we have not performed our best. And we have to do a better job. Me, as one of the leaders of the team, I have to make sure that happens . We have to win all the games we can.”

After the Pistons game, Brown called out another Sacramento leader, De’Aaron Fox, for fouling Jaden Ivey on a 3-pointer in the waning seconds with the Kings up by 3. Ivey hit the 3 and the ensuing free throw, which cost the Kings the game.

Before Brown was fired, he led the Kings’ practice on Friday and was seen by reporters having a conversation with Fox on the court.

“We talked about things in the game, what we wanted to do toward the end of the game,” Fox said after the shootaround. “Definitely didn’t know that little conversation – it’s really normal – would have been the last with him as head coach.”

Brown was informed of the decision by Kings general manager Monte McNair, who called him when the 2022-23 NBA Coach of the Year had already left the practice facility to prepare for the flight to LA

Sabonis, who said he was asleep when the decision was made, called it “shocking.” Monk said he found out at X and was also shocked, but added, “It’s the NBA. Anything can happen. So next man up, I guess.”

Fox said he was “surprised” but got a heads-up. “I figured it out a minute before everybody else did,” he said.

After Brown signed an extension in the offseason through 2026-27 — adding more than $20 million in guaranteed money to what he was already owed — Fox credited the continuity of the Kings organization.

A reporter asked Fox on Saturday if he felt any “pressure or guilt” over the way things unraveled so quickly with Brown.

“Any pressure or guilt? I mean, obviously we all know the job we have,” Fox said. “You can be traded at any time. Released. Cut. Fired. Whatever it may be. I mean, I wouldn’t use the word ‘guilt.’ But that’s the nature of the job we have.

“But I mean obviously he signed his extension this summer, we felt like we wanted to be together a lot longer, but that’s the decision they made. But at the end of the day he’s still getting paid too. A big part of being NBA player, being an NBA coach, those are the things that can happen, but these contracts are guaranteed.”

Christie addressed the team before its flight to LA and again at the Galen Center. His message?

“To come out and stick together, fight and just be us, be who we are and turn this thing around,” Sabonis said.

And Monk had his own message for Kings fans who watched their team break a 17-year postseason drought in 2023, only to have their coach fired two seasons later.

“Sorry, fans,” Monk said. “We’re going to turn it around. That’s it. Long story short.”

After Saturday’s loss, with talk still centered around the coaching change, Fox had another quick message for everyone, adding that the Kings “still have a long season ahead of them.”