There could be trouble brewing between Mike Brown and the Sacramento Kings.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported Friday that the head coach and franchise tabled contract extension talks after there was a “gulf on a potential deal” between the sides.
Brown is entering the final guaranteed season of a four-year contract he signed before the 2022-23 NBA season.
There is a mutual option in the deal for 2025-26, although Brown has reportedly preferred to get a deal done before next season.
In 2023, the former Lakers and Cavaliers head coach led the Kings to the team’s first playoff appearance since 2006, going 48-34 during the regular season before losing to the defending champion Warriors in a seven-game first-round series.
Brown became the first unanimous NBA Coach of the Year winner in league history for breaking the postseason drought.
But the Kings took a slight step back this season, going 46-36 and falling short of the postseason after losing in the play-in tournament to the Pelicans.
Team ownership, according to Kings beat writer James Ham, isn’t happy with the regression.
“The failure to repeat the success of the previous year hasn’t sat well with ownership,” sources told Ham. “This shouldn’t be a complicated matter, but like everything else in Sacramento, it is.”
The NBA head coaching market has taken off over the past year, moving Brown to seek bigger money.
Since last May, Steve Kerr, Gregg Popovich and Monty Williams have all signed deals upwards of $13 million per year.
The Athletic’s Anthony Slater and Sam Amick reported last month that Brown is looking to make somewhere in the range of $10 million annually.
Brown is set to make less than $5 million next season, per Ham.
The Kings have had a revolving door of head coaches since Rick Adelman, who was with the team for eight seasons, left in 2006, churning through 11 coaches in 16 seasons before Brown.
