Just when you thought the San Francisco 49ers had grabbed the title of Most Embarrassing Northern California Sports Franchise, the Sacramento Kings came swooping in to reclaim it. Before we get into the latest blunder(s), let’s rewind the tape to two weeks ago, when we posed the following question (just a few months after Grantland’s Zach Lowe posed a similar question): “No, seriously, what are the Sacramento Kings doing?”
In a shocking twist, we still have nothing resembling an answer to that question, and, in fact, are left with even more.
The latest round of head-scratching decisions starts with the Kings officially removing the “interim” tag from head coach Tyrone Corbin, making him the permanent head coach (until Chris Mullin decides to come down off his presidential perch) and ending whatever dream Kings fans had of George Karl installing actually-exciting basketball in Sac-Town. We’re not even going to address the silly 4-on-5 concept — a strategy ex-coach Mike Malone was reportedly not too thrilled about — because we haven’t seen it yet. Instead, we’ll focus on what we do know two weeks into the Corbin era: they’re even worse than before.
In the six games since Malone’s firing, five Kings opponents shot at least 47 percent, with the woeful Los Angeles Lakers the exception at 38 percent. All six teams scored at least 100 points. Last week, the Kings allowed their season highs in points (twice), assists, field goals and field-goal percentage.
In addition to the on-court woes, the team is still delivering the news on personnel changes through social media.
DeMarcus Cousins said most players found out on the internet/social media that Tyrone Corbin would be their coach the rest of the season.
— Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) December 30, 2014
DeMarcus Cousins on Corbin’s status: “I didn’t know. I didn’t know officially until last night either. That’s when a lot of us found out.”
— Jason Jones (@mr_jasonjones) December 30, 2014
The situation has turned into enough of a clown show that Grant Napear, the team’s play-by-play announcer and #1 cheerleader, is basically throwing his hands up and asking — publicly — “what the hell is going on?”
Last night, being in the Mecca or (sic) basketball, which is New York, there were many national beat writers that were at the game last night, and they were all coming up to me, asking, “Gosh, what is going on out there?”
And it’s really difficult to be asked that by so many people that I respect. The same thing happened when the Knicks were in town the other night. I had a lot of people that work for the Knicks coming up to me, asking me, “Gee, what on Earth is going on?”
And I don’t have an answer to that right now. And I think it’s time that somebody from management comes out and talks to the Sacramento Kings fans and tells them what the plan is. Because there is no plan that I’m aware of. I know they’ve got a plan, but we’d I think we’d all love to know what the plan is. These people are way too smart to just fire a coach and not have a plan.
The front office doesn’t owe an explanation to the fans, but it would behoove them to inform the players about team business before Joe Average Fan finds out on Twitter:
The Sacramento Kings players are confused. The Sacramento Kings players don’t know what’s going on. The Sacramento Kings players want someone to come into their locker room and talk to them and tell them what the plan is…
…what’s going on right now is unacceptable, period. It is not acceptable. And these players on this floor that are getting ready to play a game tomorrow deserve better. And these players do not need to find out through social media about anything that is happening with this team. They should be the first ones to know. It’s not right. It’s not right.
Napear may want to rethink that whole “these people are way too smart” comment because — right now — owner Vivek Ranadive’s “NBA 3.0” is looking more and more like George Maloof 2.0.
That being said, here’s a nice grown man move from Boogie earlier today against the Boston Celtics. It’s just a shame his career could be wasted thanks to incompetent ownership.
[CBS]
