The saying is, “Get your money’s worth,” and Kings head coach Mike Brown certainly did that when he was ejected from the Kings’ loss to the Bucks on Sunday.
Brown got tossed in the fourth quarter of Sacramento’s loss to Milwaukee, which ended at the hands of a Damian Lillard buzzer-beater in overtime. He hadn’t cooled off even after the game, bringing a laptop to his postgame press conference to further prove the point he was trying to make to the officials.
The NBA announced on Tuesday that Brown had been fined $50,000 for “aggressively pursuing a game official during live play, and for publicly criticizing the officiating.”
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What specifically did Brown do to earn the $50K suspension? The Sporting News takes a closer look below.
Why was Kings head coach Mike Brown fined $50K by NBA?
Sacramento was trailing by 10 points early in the fourth quarter when Brown reached his boiling point. He had argued several missed calls throughout the game but the final straw came on a De’Aaron Fox turnover in the fourth quarter where Brown believed his star point guard was fouled, leading to the giveaway.
Before the Bucks could even get the ball across halfcourt, Brown had charged toward rookie official Intae Hwang, having to get held back by his own players. As Malik Monk and Trey Lyles tried to corral their head coach, Brown was ejected from the game.
Malik Monk had to hold Mike Brown back after he was ejected 😳
pic.twitter.com/KgFWnM5KDd
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) January 15, 2024
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The Kings eventually sent the game into overtime and even took a two-point lead with five seconds remaining. When Milwaukee inbounded the ball to Damian Lillard, you knew it was “Dame Time,” as Lillard pulled up from the logo and buried a buzzer-beating, game-winning 3-pointer to hand Sacramento a frustrating loss.
DAMIAN LILLARD FOR THE WIN 🚨⌚️ pic.twitter.com/bJLRVh5OSr
— NBA TV (@NBATV) January 15, 2024
Brown still wasn’t done with his rant after the loss. The Kings head coach brought a laptop to the postgame presser, attempting to drive home his point by going through the missed calls from the officiating crew throughout the night.
He showed the pressroom a couple of different examples, explaining his reasoning as to why he believed calls should have been made in Sacramento’s favor.
“The referees are human and they’re gonna make mistakes,” Brown told the media. “But you just hope that there’s some sort of consistency and there’s some sort of communication between the refs (and the head coach). And the refs, tonight, they were great. They communicated with me all night. But in terms of the consistency you guys saw right here [points to laptop] … the consistency tonight wasn’t there, in my opinion.”
Brown was fined $50,000 by the NBA for his actions on Sunday. You can find his full press conference rant, laptop and all, below.
Mike busted out the film to break down why he got ejected tonight 😂 pic.twitter.com/7sO8yJ3g9y
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) January 15, 2024