The Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) has congratulated Sacramento Kings' Head Coach, Mike Brown, on his been named2022/23 American National Basketball Association (NBA) Coach of the Year.

In a statement issued yesterday, the NBA said Brown was named the award winner in recognition of his feats with Sacramento Kings during the season.

"Mike Brown is the first unanimous winner of the NBA Coach of the Year Award, which has been presented annually since the 1962-63 season," the statement partly stated.

Interestingly, Brown who was an assistant coach with the Golden State Warriors when Nigeria hired him as D'Tigers coach, has been away from the country's bench for the better part of the season after leading his wards to qualify and participate in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Japan.

He was not in the dugout when D'Tigers failed to qualify for the 2023 FIBA Men's World Cup to be jointly hosted by multi-nations for the first time in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.

It was speculated that he was been owed backlog of salaries and allowances by the NBBF which, perhaps, may have been responsible for why he stayed away from the Nigerian job. Although he had a very busy season with Sacramento Kings.

But in a tweet posted on the social media yesterday morning, the NBBF insisted Coach Brown, 53, remains Nigeria's men's basketball head coach. "He remains the indefatigable Coach of the Nigerian National team. He has consistently done the impossible. No one gave him a chance in the beginning of this season Currently ranked the best coach in the NBA this season," the tweet concluded.

As the first coach to be selected by unanimous decision in the NBA history, Brown emerged winner ahead of Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics and Mark Daigneault of the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Brown led the Sacramento Kings to their first playoff since 2006. Kings under his watch won 48 games en route to the playoffs.