NBA

Kings head coach Mike Brown fined $35k for aggressive behaviour towards referee

NBA: Brooklyn Nets at Sacramento Kings

Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown has been fined $35,000 for ‘aggressively pursuing’ an NBA official on Sunday.

During Sacramento’s tight-knit defeat to the Brooklyn Nets, Brown was found to have aggressively pursued referee Scott Twardoski after officials missed what the head coach believed to be a foul on guard Colby Jones.

Surprisingly, Brown was not ejected following the incident – but instead assessed a technical foul. On Tuesday it was announced that the league were slapping Brown with a $35k fine for his actions.

“I thought Colby got hit going to the rim,” Brown said. “I just wanted to show our guys that, ‘Hey, we all need to fight.’ I’m [going to] try to fight, you guys try to fight and see if we can find a way to get ourselves into the game and, you know, if we’re going to go down, we’re going to go down swinging.”

WATCH: Kings head coach Mike Brown aggressively confronts official after missed call

A statement from the NBA read:

Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown has been fined $35,000 for aggressively pursuing a game official during live play, it was announced today by Joe Dumars, Executive Vice President, Head of Basketball Operations.

“Brown’s actions took place during the Kings’ 108-103 loss to the Brooklyn Nets on Nov. 24 at Golden 1 Center.”

This isn’t the first time Brown has been hit with a financial penalty for his actions towards a referee. Last season, he was fined $50,000 for a similar incident when he believed a no-call against De’Aaron Fox was unjust.

The Kings went on to lose that game against the Milwaukee Bucks in overtime and Brown brought a laptop to his postgame press conference to demonstrate his frustration over the missed calls, questioning the standard and consistency of the officiating.

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Joe Lyons
Sports Editor

Joe Lyons is a sports writer and basketball expert for Basketball Insiders. Joe has a keen eye for the betting markets within the NBA and a great passion for the game of basketball. also been published by Nottingham Forest FC, working with the academy and senior teams to produce content on matchdays. He formerly covered the Premier League and EFL as an on-site reporter during the 2020/21 season for Prost International. He is an expert in a range of other sports including soccer, horse racing darts and American football. Joe specialises in long form SEO content alongside news, tips and betting.

All posts by Joe Lyons
Author photo
Joe Lyons Sports Editor

Joe Lyons is a sports writer and basketball expert for Basketball Insiders. Joe has a keen eye for the betting markets within the NBA and a great passion for the game of basketball. also been published by Nottingham Forest FC, working with the academy and senior teams to produce content on matchdays. He formerly covered the Premier League and EFL as an on-site reporter during the 2020/21 season for Prost International. He is an expert in a range of other sports including soccer, horse racing darts and American football. Joe specialises in long form SEO content alongside news, tips and betting.

All posts by Joe Lyons