Doug Christie Stays Positive Amid Kings' Historic Losing Streak

The Sacramento Kings have now lost 14 straight games, but head coach Doug Christie is staying positive.

Feb 9, 2026; New Orleans, Louisiana, USA; Sacramento Kings head coach Doug Christie reacts during the first half against the New Orleans Pelicans at Smoothie King Center. | Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images

With their loss to the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night, which ended in a 28-point blowout, the Sacramento Kings' losing streak has reached 14 games. This now ties the franchise record for longest losing streak, as they have not lost 14 straight games since the Cincinnati Royals did so in the 1971-72 season.

This season has been historic for the Kings, and not in a good way. They now sit at 12-44 heading into the All-Star break, and one of the few bright spots is that they have the prime lottery position.

After Wednesday's loss, though, Kings head coach Doug Christie stayed positive when asked how he processes a 14-game losing streak.

"I've been here for the absolute best of the Sacramento Kings, the best record, and now we deal with this," Christie said. "There's a median in there that takes us to the playoffs and makes our people proud, and we just keep working daily to make those strides to get to that point. There are many games in this that we could've and should've won and we didn't. It happens in streaks going both ways. ... The one thing that I know is that adversity does not define you, but it clarifies some things about you as an individual and us as a collective."

Doug Christie stays positive amid the disappointment

While the Kings' fanbase is immensely disappointed about how this season has turned out, Christie and general manager Scott Perry have continued to try to keep everyone in check. Christie says, "We will be better for it in the long run," when speaking about the adversity they are facing, while Perry always reminds fans that they are in the early stages of a long process to get where they want to be.

It is no secret that this rebuild process will take a while, and Perry has admitted that it will be a few years until they are in a good spot. While Christie has not had much success as the Kings' head coach, there is no doubt that he is willing to be a part of that long process.

"The pain that I feel, particularly, from getting so close to something and not being able to attain it for the city of Sacramento has pushed me for a long time. It continues to. I won't stop coaching them. I won't stop being positive with them and showing them—you look at other teams who have struggled and now all of a sudden they're sitting in really good positions. It happens. But you have to go through hard times. If it were easy, everyone would be 44-12 instead of 12-44," Christie said.

Christie was a player for the Kings for five seasons, playing a huge part in their 2001-02 playoff run that ended one game short of an NBA Finals appearance, and is now in his sixth year as a member of the coaching staff.

There is no doubt that Christie wants to do everything he can to make the city of Sacramento proud, and pushing through these hardships and building for the long-term is how they get there.