Redemption is a recurring theme in the NBA, especially among head coaches in a league run by players.

I thought about that when Mike Brown, fired by the Kings last December, was hired as the new coach of the New York Knicks on Wednesday.

Brown went through one of the most unfair firings in recent NBA history in Sacramento, and now he’s about to lead a team that was two games away from going to the NBA Finals. This is like handing a man keys to a Ferrari after he spent years driving a Honda Civic.

But let’s not use this as a moment to disparage the Kings. They found the guy to lead the team in Doug Christie. I’m confident in his skill to lead men and create a culture for the community to get behind.

And let’s not act as if Brown was perfect. His tough demeanor didn’t play well with everyone on the team. There were often moments in his pre- and post-game conferences where he would spend time harshly criticizing his players.

The landscape of coaching in the NBA is a cruel, unfair and unpredictable carousel. And it sometimes is the most ironic. Mike Malone, another former fired Kings coach, voiced his displeasure with Brown’s firing back in December. Malone said the Kings had “no class,” and he also said the Kings’ brass lacked “balls.” He didn’t mean basketballs. Then Malone was fired in the last week of the season, four months after Brown.

Point being, coaches will come and go in the NBA. The carousel runs on an urgent need for success and offers little room for error. Not to mention it’s run by some of the richest people on planet earth, so you can forget adding empathy or care into the situation. Brown and Malone are examples of that.

The Kings have had a rocky relationship with coaching, to say the least. Over the last decade, seven head coaches have tried their hand at leading the black and purple. Only Dave Joerger made it to three full seasons.

The most hope that Kings fans felt in the last 20 years was when Brown, a coaching guru who has been a champion with the likes of LeBron James and Stephen Curry, was hired by the Kings in 2022.

There was never a good explanation for why he was fired last December. Whatever it was, Brown was quiet until the news of his jumping back on the carousel in New York, the biggest media market in the country.

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Brown has survived a brutal dynamic

To me, it’s no surprise that the last seven NBA champions are all different teams. The last team to win two championships in a row was the Golden State Warriors, home of the second-longest tenured coach, Steve Kerr. If you don’t have a coach, you don’t have a winning culture to create a dynasty.

I’m optimistic that Brown will hopefully find his long-term home with the Knicks. He fits the current gritty and scrappy shell that the Knicks currently have and it will be fun to watch how he molds into that culture while also establishing himself as a leader.

He has another chance to prove his coaching talent in the NBA. But if this past season tells us anything, he could be on the next train out of NYC by next May.