Kings’ Brown making $8.5M per year in new deal

Sacramento Kings coach Mike Brown has agreed on a contract extension that’ll take him through the 2026-2027 season with an annual raise to $8.5 million a season, his agent Warren LeGarie told ESPN on Friday night.

Brown — the 2022-2023 NBA Coach of the Year — gets a $4.5 million raise on his 2024-2025 contract and two new seasons at $8.5 million, LeGarie said. Brown has played a significant part in bringing the Kings back to relevance with a 94-70 record the past two seasons and the end of a 16-year playoff drought.

Brown and the Kings had briefly tabled talks but both sides were determined to reach a deal that kept him with the franchise and landed there on Friday night. Brown led the Kings to the Western Conference playoffs for the first time in 18 years in 2022-23, steering Sacramento to a 48-34 record and the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference a year ago — eventually losing a seven-game opening-round series to the Golden State Warriors.

The Kings were a No. 9 seed this season, beating the Warriors in the play-in tournament before the New Orleans Pelicans eliminated them.

Brown is the first Kings coach to have a winning record in each of his first two seasons with the franchise since Rick Adelman from 1998-2000, according to ESPN Stats and Information research.

Brown is a two-time NBA Coach of the Year — including with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2009. Brown had two stops with the Cavaliers as head coach (305-187, .620) and a season-plus as the coach of the Los Angeles Lakers (42-29, .592).