After several days of speculation, Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro announced on Thursday that the Sacramento Kings have reached an agreement in principle with George Karl to become their next coach.
Karl will take over as current coach Tyrone Corbin’s successor and will become Sacramento’s third coach of the season beginning next week.
The Kings will hold a formal news conference when the deal is officially finalized after the upcoming All-Star Weekend. Terms have not been released, but Karl, currently an analyst with ESPN analyst, is expected to get a four-year deal worth an estimated $15 million.
Corbin was relieved from his coaching duties on Thursday, but will remain with the Kings in an advisory role. He took over the team in mid-December after the Kings abruptly fired Mike Malone, who had conflicts with management over the team’s playing style. Corbin, who prior to joining the Kings this season was the head coach of the Utah Jazz, was promoted to head coach after serving as an assistant to Malone, and promised the uptempo approach the front office desired. The transition hasn’t gone very well, with the Kings just 7-21 since Corbin was promoted. Sacramento began the season 5-1 under Malone, but went 2-7 when DeMarcus Cousins was out with an injury. Malone was fired on Dec. 15.
“I have the utmost respect for Tyrone as a coach and person,” D’Alessandro said in a statement on Thursday. “He’s a man of great integrity, a consummate professional that managed a difficult situation with class and professionalism. I look forward to continuing to work with Tyrone moving forward.”
Several sources reported earlier in the week that Kings officials told Corbin that the team’s remaining games this week in Chicago and Milwaukee likely would be his last as head coach.
Current Detroit Pistons head coach Stan Van Gundy didn’t take too kindly to the Kings’ actions with Corbin.
“I think it’s an unfortunate situation the way it’s been handled,” Van Gundy told reporters before the Pistons’ 104-87 loss to the Spurs on Wednesday. “I think Tyrone Corbin has been treated very, very poorly by their organization. I think the way they’ve treated him is unfortunate and inexcusable for one of the real class acts in our business.
“To have a very public coaching, not search, courting going on and while you’re asking him to coach games, I think he’s handled it with a great deal of class.”
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Karl was considered a serious candidate for the position back in December because of his past relationship with Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro. The two worked together in the past with the Denver Nuggets, and D’Alessandro is known to be a fan of Karl’s style.
“I’m humbled,” Karl told SiriusXM radio in a December interview shortly after Malone’s firing. “If they’re interested in me, I’m interested in them.”
Karl, 63, has won 1,131 regular-season games as an NBA coach, including stops with Cleveland, Golden State, Seattle, Milwaukee and Denver. He rejoined ESPN following his exit from the Denver Nuggets, which strangely enough, came just after winning NBA Coach of the Year honors for the 2012-13 season.
Karl ranks sixth all time among NBA coaches with 1,131 wins. After Karl joined the Nuggets midway through the ’04-05 season, he led them to a 32-8 finish. He will immediately be faced with the task of stopping the Kings recent streak of poor play. Sacramento is 18-34 after dropping 14 of their last 16 games.
The Kings’ All-Star forward DeMarcus Cousins, who was reportedly against the firing of Malone in December, offered his thoughts on the coaching situation on Tuesday night before a game with Chicago, claiming that he has had no input to the team either for or against Karl.
“I’m not involved in any coaching decisions right now. I’ve heard that George Karl is a great coach. If that is the direction that the organization chooses, I’ll support it,” he said. “Out of respect for Coach Corbin, I hadn’t planned on making any comments about what is rumored out there. But at this point I felt some things needed to be clarified.”
“All of [us] got thrown into this. To the best of our ability, we try to get it done. Work with what we have and try to leave the least amount of excuses possible.”
“I don’t fire coaches or hire them,” Cousins would later tell ESPN in an interview. “Everyone knows I liked and respected Coach Malone. I didn’t want [Malone’s firing in December] to happen.
Cousins had previously made some bizarre statements two nights earlier after hitting a game-winning shot against the Phoenix Suns. Rather than address his shot, he instead offered reporters a rather cyptic rant.
“I ain’t pumped up. I’ve just got a lot on my mind,” Cousins told reporters. “The crazy thing about it is, I’ve just got a question for y’all: How you gonna stop God’s plan? How you gonna do that? How you gonna do that? That’s all I want to know. How you gonna stop God’s plan?
“Man, this city done put me through so much, and I stayed loyal to it the whole time. Hey, I just wanna know, how you gonna stop God’s plan? God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers. The marathon continues. I’m out.”
George Karl brings with him a proven track record of success with various teams around the league, most notably with superstars such as Shawn Kemp in Seattle and Carmelo Anthony in Denver. He has been known in the past to have clashes with his team’s best players, so it will be interesting to see going forward how Cousins and Karl mesh together, especially after such a tumultuous season so far. We will find out next Friday, beginning with the Kings’ matchup at home against the Boston Celtics.
