Report: George Karl confirmed as new Sacramento Kings coach
The former Coach of the Year becomes the Kings’ third coach this season
It’s official: George Karl will be the new coach of the Sacramento Kings.
The Kings have been rumored to be interested in Karl for months, and interest intensified over the past week. Now, despite some hiccups along the way, it appears the Kings officially got their man, according to the Sacramento Bee.
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Karl will replace Tyrone Corbin, who in turn replaced Mike Malone in December, making Karl the team’s third coach in as many months. Malone’s firing came as a surprise, as the team got off to a surprising 5-1 start to the season, falling back in the standings only after Cousin missed time with viral meningitis. Corbin took over on Dec. 14, but the team has struggled mightily since, going 7-20 in Corbin’s tenure. Corbin has reportedly been informed that today’s game in Milwaukee will be his last as head coach, according to the Bee.
Karl, 63, has a career record of 1,887-1,131 as a head coach with the Cavaliers, Warriors, SuperSonics, Bucks, and Nuggets, good for sixth on the all-time wins list. He has never won a championship, but went to the Finals in 1996 with Seattle, where they ran into the unstoppable buzzsaw that was the 1996 Bulls. His career winning percentage is .600, and his last losing season as a head coach came way back in 1988.
Karl’s experience and history of winning should bring some stability to a Kings team that peaked in the early 2000s, in the glory days of Chris Webber and Peja Stojakovic (bet you forgot about him, yeah? That guy was good), but has been among the NBA’s worst teams over the past decade. The franchise’s last winning season was 2005-06, under Rick Adelman. For perspective on how long ago that was, that team’s starters included Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Bonzi Wells, and Mike Bibby. So yeah, it’s been a while.
Karl should have his hands full with the Kings, specifically with mercurial star DeMarcus Cousins, who is one of the NBA’s most singular talents; that is, when he’s not busy picking fights or getting suspended. He has a history of problems with past coaches, such as Paul Westphal and Keith Smart; in fact, he had a good relationship with Malone, who seemed to be able to get the most out of him–one of the biggest reasons it was such a surprise when Malone was fired.
Karl’s most recent stop was in Denver, where he won the NBA’s 2013 Coach of the Year award, yet was fired a short time after the award win, and replaced by Brian Shaw.
Hopefully Karl can get the Kings back on track; it would be one more bit of good news for a fanbase that was saved from having its team moved to Seattle, and plus, isn’t it just more fun when teams that wear purple are good? I think so, anyway.
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