Scott Perry sat at the podium during his introductory Kings press conference last Wednesday after being named the team’s new general manager. Nine days later, he returned to the podium with company and a familiar face.
A former Kings guard, Kings commentator, Kings assistant coach, Kings interim head coach, and now head coach, Doug Christie sat proudly next to Perry on Friday morning in a seat he long has wanted.
The Kings officially announced Christie as their new coach after his 51-day “Baptism by fire” interim run following the firing of former coach Mike Brown. Under Christie, Sacramento posted a 27-24 record and finished as the Western Conference’s No. 9 seed.
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SIGN UP HERE Perry explained what went into his decision to hire Christie.
“When I was sitting at home in Florida watching a lot of NBA basketball, I got a chance to observe Doug Christie take over as the head coach here, which quite frankly, was a very difficult situation,” Perry said. “He did so with class, poise. He had a tremendous presence on the court. I watched him connect with this group of players that led to some success on the court. That connectivity was very obvious to me.
“Doug, in doing so through this turbulent time, posted a winning record while also improving the team's offensive efficiency. But above and beyond all of that, Doug Christie embodies the values that we, I so deeply treasure and appreciate in what we're going to build this organization on.”
Professionalism, discipline, a defensive mindset and selflessness were the characteristics Perry described he was looking for in his coach.
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Perry said he had some “informal conversations” with other potential candidates after last week, stating his phone had been “incessantly” ringing with coaches interested in the job. With his career longevity in the NBA and respected relationships over the years, Perry acknowledged that he knows just about every coach who “may or may not have been available.”
Despite all that, after having more conversations with Christie, Perry ultimately believed he was the best man for the job.
“It was just a natural fit,” Perry said. “We see the game in a lot of the same ways. The core values and the tangibles of this game of basketball, we both have a deep appreciation for. And it was important for me that whoever's sitting in that head coaching seat could carry that out the very best.
“And it’s important that this relationship be a very strong relationship, that we can communicate freely, openly. And over the weekend, that really felt natural and comfortable to me. Look, once we start the season, there are going to be highs and lows. I don't care how good a team you have or how bad a team you have, there's adversity that hits in this league. He showed me his integrity and character, how he dealt with difficulty this past season. So I'm comfortable with that when I saw how he did that.”
Christie had his hands full with the cards he was dealt since taking over in late December.
There were tough losses. There were road wins against the defending champions. Historic win streaks. And everything in between.
Seventeen games into Christie’s interim coaching role, the Kings traded franchise point guard De’Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs in a three-team deal that brought two-time NBA All-Star Zach LaVine to Sacramento and also shipped sharpshooter Kevin Huerter to the Chicago Bulls.
Sacramento played its remaining 34 regular-season games without a true starting point guard. On top of this, Christie also tried to find the perfect recipe with a bunch of different ingredients while integrating new pieces into the mix. The core of Malik Monk, LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, Keegan Murray and Domantas Sabonis proved not to work together.
The Kings went 16-18 since the Fox trade, finished as the No. 9 seed and suffered a humiliating season-ending loss to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA Play-In Tournament.
That ending didn’t sit right with Christie.
“I have – we have – unfinished business, and that's my mindset going into what we're approaching right now,” Christie said. “This game will leave a hole in your heart. It will be difficult. It'll take something from you. And the odd thing about that is it's the only thing that can fill that void.
“So with that, I accept the challenge, the opportunity, and I'm truly, truly grateful to be sitting here right now.”
"This game will leave a hole in your heart."
— Kings on NBCS (@NBCSKings) May 2, 2025
Doug Christie is ready to tackle some unfinished business as the new Kings coach pic.twitter.com/1HV8Jvn1IR
Perry was asked about the players' approval of Christie and the overall respect he has from the organization and the city of Sacramento. While he admitted that was a factor in making his decision, he maintained that he would have hired Christie for the job elsewhere around the league.
"Definitely a confirmation for me, but even if I was somewhere else, to be quite frank with you, this man exhibits the qualities that I would want represented in my team," Perry said. "I think that is the strongest endorsement I can give of him. Yeah, he was, he's special to this community and that's not lost on me, but above and beyond everything else is the character of the man. It's the passion that he displays for the game.
"I can tell he's going to be a coach that is always trying to find answers, learn more about his craft. Look, I'm a former coach, and I'm the first to tell him, or anybody else, it's not an easy job. It's the most second-guess job in the world, probably, but he is made of the type of internal fortitude I believe necessary to navigate those waters. And I thought he got a quick baptism by fire this past season in doing so, and it showed me a lot."
One of the first agenda items for the new Kings duo is to find and establish a culture amongst the team.
Christie detailed what he is looking for in a passionate, 50-second response.
"A lot of people talk about culture, and for me, habits build culture," Christie said. "Culture is a byproduct of habits, and we want to establish a very, very high level of lows, but also the ability for our team to be a physical manifestation of this community. It's blue collar, it's hard working, it's loyal. It's so loyal that it kept the team here.
"And we want players that are going to represent that when they come through the turnstiles and when they leave, they know that they've gotten every piece of what they thought, heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears, they get it all. And that's what this community is about. And that's what we want to be about."