Sacramento Kings Hire Mike Malone as New Head Coach
By Josh Hill
The Sacramento Kings may not have been a very good basketball team this year, but this summer has so far proven to be royal for fans in the capital of California. An attempt to sell the team to Seattle was blocked by the NBA and a local ownership group will not be taking over the business of the team, but another guy will be taking over the coaching of it. According to Adrian Wojnarowski, the Sacramento Kings have hired Mike Malone as the team’s new head coach.
Golden State's Mike Malone has reached an agreement in principle on a four-year deal to coach the Sacramento Kings, sources tell Y! Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 31, 2013
Hiring Malone comes as no real shock to those in Sacramento, as his name has been floating around for the better part of a week now. Malone made his name this season as an assistant head coach on Mark Jackson’s young and upstart Golden State Warriors squad that went deep into the postseason before losing to the San Antonio Spurs.
Malone will be replacing Keith Smart, who turned in two losing seasons with the Kings before getting the axe this offseason.
The new deal for Malone will be a four year contract that has a team option attached to the fourth year. Fans in Sacramento got to keep their Kings and Mike Malone is arriving at perhaps the most exciting time in Kings basketball in arguably an entire decade. The work is still ahead and there are mounds of adversity to overcome but Sacramento seems ready to embrace the future and Mike Malone is the guy who they hope can lead them to a bright one.