Mike Brown has a huge net worth despite being fired by the Sacramento Kings – but it is dwarfed by that of his his former assistant and successor, Doug Christie.
Brown was dismissed on Friday, December 27, after a slow start to the Kings season. The team currently boast a 13-18 record, losing their last five games which resulted in them falling towards the bottom of the NBA’s Western Conference.
The decision to fire Brown was due to franchise bosses believing they had to take action before the Kings play-off chances were left in complete ruin, with former player Christie stepping up as interim head coach.
Browns exit comes despite him claiming the NBAs Coach of the Year award in 2022/23. It is an even greater shock given he was handed a two-year contract extension in the summer, taking his salary up to $8.5m-a-year and keeping him under contract through 2026/27.
But even with the considerable pay package he will receive thanks to his early dismissal, Browns assistant and now-replacement Christie has a net worth of almost double his.
Christie is reportedly worth $20m, according to Celebrity Net Worth. That is predominantly down to his playing career, which spanned from 1993 to 2007, and earned him $52m.
During that time, he played for seven different teams, including the Los Angeles Lakers, the Toronto Raptors and the Kings. He made the Conference Finals with the latter in 2002. Following his retirement, Christie joined NBA Sports as a commentator for Kings games but left to become the teams assistant coach in 2021.
Brown, meanwhile, is worth around $12m. Having played college basketball and earned a degree in business administration, the 54-year-olds NBA career began as a video intern for the Denver Nuggets before becoming a video coordinator and scout.
He went on to become Gregg Popovichs assistant at the San Antonio Spurs in the early 2000s, helping the team win a championship. He later moved into a head coach role for the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he managed to win an Eastern Conference title in 2007.
Brown was hired as Phil Jacksons successor in 2011, later signing Steve Nash and Dwight Howard to an already formidable team consisting of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, and Metta World Peace. However, he was fired after a poor start to his second season, and another unsuccessful stint with the Cavs ended in his dismissal.
He has been fired by the Kings despite back-to-back winning seasons, something the franchise hadnt managed in nearly two decades. The decision was criticized by several coaches, including Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, who said: The firing of Mike Brown today was just shocking to me and Im sure all the people in our profession men and women.
Carlisle, the longtime president of the National Basketball Coaches Association, added: I had the privilege of working with Mike when I was in Indiana coaching the first time. I view him as one of the standard bearers for integrity for our profession. And Im just absolutely shocked that that decision was made.
His frustration was echoed by Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone who was fired by Sacramento owner Vivek Ranadive in December 2014. Brown was the sixth coach to hold the job in the decade since Malones departure, with the latter saying the recent firing was done with no class.
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