Brown led the Kings to break the 16-year playoff record, but once coached James was swept away

This article was compiled from: The Athletic

Written by Jason Quick

原标题：Kings’ 16-year playoff drought ends: Inside Mike Brown’s quest to rediscover the franchise’s soul

After yesterday's victory over the Blazers, Sacramento locked up a playoff spot this season, the first time the Kings have reached the playoffs since 2006!

Not only did the players play well at both ends of the offensive and defensive ends, but their head coach Mike Brown was instrumental in maximizing the potential of the players!

Brown coached James as the Cavaliers' head coach from 2005-2010, but was eventually swept away by Cleveland. At the moment, the Kings he led are third in the West, while James's Lakers are temporarily ninth in the West and are struggling for a playoff spot!

1. No playoffs for 16 consecutive years: The longest embarrassing record in North America's top five leagues

PORTLAND, Oregon — In this crowded guest locker room on Wednesday, sleeping ghosts were awakened by some unfamiliar sound. Daron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, Harrison Barnes and the players who make up the Sacramento Kings' new team did something the Kings rarely did in recent years: They celebrated in March.

Although the celebration was not so noisy, there were only some high-fives and a few cheers. But it was enough to awaken Kevin Martin, Spencer Hoss, Benoy Udri, DeMarcus Cousins, and dozens of ghosts of kings over the past 16 years buried under the ashes of humiliation, heartbreak and failure. On Wednesday, the Kings defeated the Trail Blazers 120-80 to enter the playoffs for the first time since 2006, ending the longest playoff drought in NBA history.

Of the 16 teams that will be playing in the NBA playoffs this season, none will celebrate as affectionately as the Kings and their community. In the city that is closely tied to the only professional team, Sacramento has not only kept losing over the past 16 years. They also did a lot of embarrassing things: messing up in the draft and constantly changing the head coach. The performance on the court was so bad, the most important achievement was winning the championship that the Clippers also won and was once a laughing stock in the NBA.

2. Brown helps the king recover his lost soul

That pain — that embarrassment — has been going on for so long and so far-reaching that when Mike Brown was hired as head coach last summer, one of the first things he noticed was that the team didn't have a soul of its own. Therefore, he made it a priority to find and reforge the soul of the team.

Now, nine months later, after some sharp operations by general manager Monte McNair in the second year, and the fast-paced offense and tough style of Brown, the Kings are not only 46-30 and third in the West, they have also found their soul, a soul shaped by hard work, a soul nurtured by family culture, a soul nourished by joy. That soul was so shining that it burst like a purple beam from the golden center of downtown Sacramento.

So how did the king do it? No "Aha!" A moment when a sound suddenly comes true. Nor is there a speech that looks like a turning point in history. There are no moments of adversity to overcome. It's a slow process, the gradual establishment of some habits, and a firm belief. Most importantly, a balance is found between work and fun.

That's why, hours before they awakened the ghosts of the past in the locker room, the Sacramento Kings echoed laughter in the empty Moda Center Court.

3. Brown made the Kings the league's most scoreable team

Just after 11 a.m. on Wednesday, a group of Kings players made their way from the locker room to Moda Center. Wednesday was Kings' 76th game of the season, and until this point, no game plan or strategy had been announced to players. However, Brown held a lengthy replay session with several players whispering about how long it lasted.

 But soon, those complaints turned into laughter. Once on the court, the team encouraged Brown to score a layup.

"He got the ball between his legs," defender David Mitchell said of Brown's dribbling approach, "and everyone laughed crazy." ”

It was a million-dollar move, but it cost only a dime.

"He didn't make it to the layup," Mitchell said with a laugh.

The team lost. Their reaction to the smelly layup was so great that a security guard in the hallway of Moda Center poked his head into the arena to see what was going on.

It was a lighthearted moment that broke the dull replay session that was reminiscent of a similar moment during the Kings' high-intensity training camp in September. That's when Brown was trying to push a frantic offensive tempo so the Kings could be the league's top scoring team, he was caught sprinting (well, running at his top speed) and telling his players the need to "start the jets."

4. Brown is seen as a perfectionist in the eyes of the players

"The training was very intense, we were up and down, up and down, sometimes it was chaotic," Kevin Huert said, "but he tried to get us playing at a certain pace when we saw him racing us on the pitch and told us 'turn on the jet!'"

Like his sideline sprint at training camp, Brown said his Wednesday morning's layup miss wasn't planned. He said he was working to complete a European layup, a deliberate three-pronged operation.

"When I took the third step out of the European step, the ball slipped a bit," Brown said.

Brown added that he saw player development coach Sean Laval out of the corner of his eye and feared that Laval would sneak up and block him.

"So I was a little nervous, and I did get on a smelly basket," Brown said. "But I grabbed the rebound... And the second layup was completed. "So, it's not planned, it's impulse, and I want to give my layup some fancy moves."

Moments like Brown's layup and his jets being activated, jokes like this neutralize each other's demands. He's a perfectionist and his players say Brown is tough on them.

"For him, it's routine operation," Hult said. "I can't count how many quick timeouts he called when we messed up the defense. We have a long replay session. We talked for at least 30 minutes today. But that's his way, every day we have to put in it, put our heart and soul into our work, and when something goes wrong, we keep trying to fix it. It's a thing that runs through the season and we're just constantly polishing something. ”

5. Brown rebuilds the Kings' winning culture on and off the court

But before Brown can start working on the details on the court, he has to work out the big picture off the court.

On Tuesday, the Kings defeated the Blazers, and the night before winning their playoff tickets, all Kings employees and their families held a grand party at El Gaucho restaurant in downtown Portland. The dinner and airfare for the employee's families to Portland were paid for by the team. On Wednesday, after the win, the team also bought drinks for the families. On Thursday in Portland, the entire staff will have dinner again ahead of Friday's rematch with the Blazers.

"When we say we're a family team, I'm meticulous," Brown said. "We were away from home all season and it was a huge sacrifice for our wife and children. It's not a 9-to-5, five-day-a-week job. So we want to be able to express our gratitude to our family from time to time. ”

His efforts to create this environment are a factor in his process of trying to build and nurture the soul of the team. That's what he learned after coaching with the Cavaliers and Lakers.

"When I was younger, when I first started working, I was thinking about the X and O factors — what I can do on the offensive end, what I can do on the defensive end — to get the situation right," Brown said. "But I feel like in this case, there needs to be a cultural shift, from top to bottom, from bottom to top." Bryant used to tell me: 'You have to keep in touch with your peers. 'In order to stay connected, the soul of this team has to be right. ”

He felt that the team was not collaborating with each other and not connecting with each other. So he became the glue of the team. Without prior notice, he headed to the team's business department, standing in the booth of the ticketing and marketing department, for a question-and-answer session.

"I want them to hear me and understand me," Brown said.

He planned a retreat for the coaching staff, but also invited the team's business executives.

"I want the business units of the company to feel like they're part of what we're doing so we can connect," he says.

He stepped onto the court twice in the weeks leading up to training camp, when players began arriving in Sacramento and began training for the game. For the rest of the day, he sat on the sidelines and watched assistants Jodi Fernandez, Jay Triano, Doug Christie, Luke Laux and Leandro Barbosa advise the players.

"I want to delegate power to my assistant," Brown said. "If I talk to players, I'm mainly talking about family and stuff. They'll hear enough of me in the bootcamp. But most importantly, I want them to see that I have confidence in my assistants. ”

By the time camp arrived, Brown had already made a lot of progress. He was in contact with ticket sellers, community workers, medical performers. Every corner of the team is touched.

"There has to be a trust, and it has to start with me," Brown said. "I have to make me visible to everyone. I have to reach everyone as much as I can so that everyone can feel my confidence as much as possible. ”

The last thing Brown did was draft what he called a "contract." It's essentially an all-out commitment to selflessly connect with the team, to be fully committed and responsible on the basketball court, and to endure adversity in a positive way to earn each other's trust. At the team dinner, Brown put on a video presentation and gave a presentation, after which he gave everyone a chance to sign a contract — from team president Vivek Ranadive to chief operating officer Matina Kolokotronis to the team's two-way players.

"I suggested how we were going to change the soul of this team." Brown said, "It's not a one-off, absolutely not. It's a sustainable, winning culture. ”

 Today, replicas of the three contracts have been made into banners. A team locker room hanging in the center of Gold. One is in the training room on the second floor of the team's training center. The other travels with the team to away from home.

As his players finished showering and getting dressed in the locker room, Brown pulled out and swiped his phone until he found a photo of one of the banners he took.

"You can see it," he said. "Everyone signed."

6. This new king no longer lacks talent

Of course, Brown isn't the only reason the Sacramento Kings have made such a dramatic shift. McNair had surgery on roster building, combining exciting trades (Sabonis, Huert), sharp drafts (Keegan Murray, Mitchell) and discreet free agent signings (Malik Monk).

"It's the most talented team I've ever played for," said Fox, the team's star who has played well this season.

The players have also put in an effort to ensure that what is good on paper shows up on the pitch. The coaching staff raved about Sabonis' tenacity and ability to fight tirelessly every night (even with a thumb injury, he played most of the second half of the season with the injury). Fox has become the most lethal player at the end of the NBA game, leading the league in scoring in the fourth quarter and scoring in key moments.

"I don't think the players fully appreciate his 1-on-1 scoring ability at the league's elite level," Hult said of Fox. "Everyone talks about his speed, but the most impressive thing is his ability to finish the game. His abilities, from a blazing start, to a sudden stop, to a change of direction in the box, are very impressive. All these fourth quarter scores, key scores... It all means that the guy can score whenever he wants. ”

With Sabonis bringing the Thunder to the Kings, Fox bringing the Lightning, and Murray offering hope (he set NBA rookie single-season three-point shooting record on Wednesday, surpassing Damian Lillard and Donovan Mitchell), the Kings were finally able to feel they were on par with other heavyweights in the West in terms of talent.

7. Brown, who has been with both the Cavaliers and the Warriors, knows how to help the players

Brown, a former assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors and a three-time NBA champion, felt in the Kings' locker room that he could help the team get through. The first step is Wednesday: to make the playoffs.

"What he brings to the table is higher level thinking," Fox said.

Moreover, it is a common way of thinking. Yes, Brown is tough. He made the team work hard — sometimes too hard, judging by the complaints he complained about Wednesday's shot. But he also allows players to have a say in the soul of the team.

In January, while the team was in Oklahoma City, Brown called the team's leaders to hotel rooms: Fox, Sabonis, Barnes and Mitchell. He showed them the Kings' remaining fixtures and as a reward for their hard work in the first half of the season, Brown gave them a chance to decide on the team's training schedule for the rest of the season.

If given the choice of Brown, Brown would practice on each day off and shoot before each game. But he said his six-year experience with the Warriors taught him a balance between rest and work.

"Working hard, it comes naturally to me. That's all I know, and that's what I feel most comfortable with," Brown said. "I may not be the best at it yet, but my assistants are great – they're not afraid to look me in the eye and say, 'No, you shouldn't do this.' ”

On that day in January, in Oklahoma City, the responsibility now falls on the players. They choose their own training days and announce rest days over the course of months.

"Jody [Fernandez, his assistant coach] was there... I thought it was on my side. But he's not," Brown quipped. "So it was me against Jody and four other players and they all banded together against me. But you know, I called them and told them we could do it, so I had to grit my teeth and get them to do what I said. You know, at the end of the day, shooting is a kid's game. We all play this from third grade – we all rest outside and you play this or rope ball. So, you're going to want to have fun in time, because life is short, man. ”

8. In the king, known as the coach killer, Brown proved himself

For Kings fans, the days were so long — sixteen years. But now, for the first time since Adelman scheduled games for Mike Bibby, Brad Miller and Bonzie Wells, they are back in the playoffs. The Kings ended the season with a 44-38 record, and in Game 2 of the first-round series, the top-seeded Spurs were in jeopardy until Brent Barry hit a three-pointer with 4.9 seconds left to drag the game into overtime. The Spurs won that game and series 4-2. It hasn't been until today since that the Kings are finally back in the playoffs.

During this time, many people have tried to get the team back on track: Eric Musselman, Reggie Xiuster, Paul Westphal, Keith Smart, Michael Malone, Ty Corbyn, George Carr, Dave Yog, Luke Walton and Alvin Gentry have all served as head coaches. Spencer Hoss, Tyrek Evans, John Salmons, Jason Thompson, Carl Landry and others have also tried to be the right answer for the team.

But between missing out on draft opportunities for cornerstone players like Luka Doncic, Damian Lillard and Devin Booker, and the endless search for a coach, the team lost not just the game, but more importantly, the soul.

That's why Brown, Fox, Sabonis, Barnes and the rest of the Kings celebrated so quietly after Wednesday's game. They high-fived, smiled, cheered because they knew what it meant to the fans and previous players. But they didn't celebrate more frantically, either, knowing that their goals were much more than that.

"When you have a group of smart, fanatical, passionate fans who love not only their team, but their city, you can feel... It's something to be proud of. "You just want them to own the whole world." You'll be excited and you'll want them to celebrate, but we also know they expect more from us and we want to give them more. ”