For more than a decade, every coach that walked in the door of the Sacramento Kings’ office talked about changing the team culture and breaking the playoff drought — an absence from the playoffs that stretched out for 16 years.
Mike Brown not only talked the talk, he walked the walk — the Kings are back in the playoffs (and doing quite well, thank you very much).
That earned Brown a unanimous Coach of the Year selection — he got all 100 first-place votes (from a panel of media members).
Mark Daigneault of the Thunder came in second, and Joe Mazzulla of the Celtics third. Here is a breakdown of the voting (for the record, my official ballot had Brown, Daigneault then the Knicks’ Tom Thibodeau third).
Brown has the reputation of a defense-first coach but his team had the best offense in the NBA this season (while they struggled on the defensive end during the regular season, they have looked sharp on that end in two games against the Warriors this postseason).
Brown also was voted Coach of the Year by his peers. This is also his second COY award, he won it back in 2009 coaching a 66-win Cleveland Cavaliers team (which had MVP LeBron James playing for them).
Brown is the second postseason award to go to the Kings, De’Aaron Fox won the inaugural NBA Clutch Player of the Year award.