Mike Brown had a whirlwind day on Monday.
In the morning, he was named the next head coach for the Sacramento Kings. In the evening, about two hours before tip-off, he learned he would be filling for Warriors coach Steve Kerr for their Game 4 matchup against the Grizzlies after Kerr tested positive for COVID. Has a coach of one team ever led another to a playoff victory as head coach?
Brown held the team together on an emotional day and the Warriors grinded out a 101-98 win. Afterwards, Steph Curry appeared to throw some shade at Brown’s new franchise during his postgame interview with TNT.
“You talk about historically bad shooting” Curry said. “A lot of history was made. He was named head coach twice in 24 hours. I feel like we got traded to the Kings overnight. I don’t know how to explain all this.”
The Warriors, of course, played an ugly victory Monday night. They missed their first 14 3-pointers and shot just 40 percent from the field and 24.3 percent from distance. The Kings, meanwhile, are riding the longest NBA playoff drought in league history at 16 seasons.
So, was Steph implying that the Warriors morphed into the league’s worst team for 47 minutes before taking the lead in the final minute Monday night? A reporter asked him for clarification after the game.
“You misheard that,” Curry said. “I was saying because Mike was the coach, it felt like we all got traded because there was a lot of talk about him being the head coach and obviously all of the sudden, now he is the head coach of our team tonight. It wasn't about how we were playing. It was just the vibe of Mike Brown as the head coach of the Kings and now all of the sudden he's the head coach of two teams. Got to get that straight.”
“Good save,” the reporter said.
“Thank you,” Steph said before walking off the podium.
What to make of all this? It’s open to interpretation, but I think this is the one percent of the time where Steph had a slip of the tongue. He’s always very sharp about what he says – and what he doesn’t say. There’s a reason he’s so well-liked. It sounds like Steph wasn't the only one to give Brown a hard time about the career move.
"We got a lot of jokesters on the team," Brown said. "And I'm okay with it."
