The Kings needed a new coach last year, but since they hadn't reached the NBA playoffs since 2006, they also needed someone who could change their culture.
Enter Mike Brown.
Before the Kings’ first playoff game in 17 years tips off Saturday night at Golden 1 Center, team owner Vivek Ranadive revealed why he believed Brown was the perfect fit for the job during their initial interview.
"I got very involved in the process, and I had Coach Mike come to my house, and we had a six-hour dinner while the Warriors were in the playoffs [last year]," Ranadive told Andscape's Marc J. Spears. "And he's in San Francisco. I live in Atherton. And I had a long list of questions. And so, he showed up with 20 pages of notes, to my house. And so, he's very methodical, he's very detail-oriented ...
"He can hold players accountable while at the same time giving them love and making them feel like he has their back and he wants them to succeed, and that he's going to put them in a position to succeed. So, he's an incredible coach, and I like to say that culture eats strategy for lunch. And he's a culture guy.
While Ranadive liked the traits that Brown would bring to Sacramento, he also told the then-Warriors assistant about the human element he expected in the Kings' organization.
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"When I met with him, I said to him, I said, 'Coach, I haven't been that involved, but I’m going to get involved," Ranadive told Spears. " 'And so, you and I are going to talk. So, if you don't like that, then you shouldn't do this.' And he said, 'No, I love that.' "
"So, I said, 'OK, there’s only two rules that are going to apply. One is radical candor. So, I'm always going to be honest. You're always going to be honest. But couched with that is rule two, which is radical love, where there's going to be unqualified love and support for you, and it's going to be a safe place.’ So, we've operated on that premise."
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Brown then coached the Kings to a 48-34 record and the Western Conference's No. 3 seed in his first season, ending what was then the longest playoff drought in professional sports. Brown's next challenge: Preparing to face his former squad -- the Warriors -- in a first-round series amid all the chatter about the Kings' lack of experience.