There’s a reason Coach Mike Brown has won Coach of the Year two times—in 2009 and 2023—and won 4 NBA championships as an assistant coach. It’s his ability to lead. And he is only getting better. The second time he won Coach of the Year, he was voted in unanimously—the first time in NBA history that any coach was ever voted in unanimously.
So how does he do it? For Coach Brown, leading comes down to building relationships in the organization and developing a winning culture. His four keys are communication, accountability, commitment, and trust.
Communication
Good leadership and teamwork come down to communication. Lots of it. LeBron James, who Mike Brown coached in Cleveland when he won his first Coach of the Year award, explained, “He came in with a defensive mindset and a defensive strategy. It started with a lot of communication.”
Coach Brown spends a lot of his time communicating expectations for his players and organization. Then he expects everyone in the organization to communicate with each other.
Accountability
Accountability is key for execution. Everyone in the organization needs to be accountable. Sacramento Kings guard De’Aaron Fox explained, “Accountability has been big since Day 1 … just being able to hold everybody accountable. … That’s definitely the biggest thing.”
During games, Coach Brown has been known to call a timeout any time he sees a player isn’t hustling on defense or if the team seems out of alignment.
Commitment
Coach Mike Brown expects commitment from everyone in the organization, not just the players. When Brown joined the Sacramento Kings as Head Coach in 2022, he created an “All-in” contract for the players and members of the organization to sign, including the front office. He asked them all to be present, accountable, and embrace adversity.
Trust
Finally, Brown develops trust to make everything work. If you don’t have trust, then you can’t have communication and accountability. For Coach Brown, everybody has to embrace the trust component so they can be direct with each other and ensure there are no misconceptions.
Likewise, when he took over as head coach of the Sacramento Kings, he made sure “all aspects of the franchise were aligned vertically and horizontally—with trust as the foundation.”
Using his leadership principles, Coach Brown has turned around the Sacramento Kings franchise. He helped the Sacramento Kings reach their first playoffs since 2006—ending their 16-year drought.
