The Sacramento Kings were prepared to fire head coach George Karl after Wednesday night's game against the Philadelphia 76ers, but Kings general manager Vlade Divac told ESPN's Marc Stein Tuesday that Karl won't be fired.
Kings decide to keep George Karl as head coach after all
The Kings were all prepared to fire head coach George Karl, but they’ve changed their mind.
Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports
Divac released this statement: "George is our coach and we're collectively working through our issues."
Stein reported Monday evening that Divac had decided to go ahead with firing Karl after yet another ugly loss dropped the Kings to 21-31 on the season, but the Kings GM has decided to do an about face after a lengthy meeting with the embattled head coach on Tuesday in Philadelphia.
The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski painted a different picture of the events, saying there was never a decision to fire Karl and that it was actually owner Vivek Ranadive who was pushing for the coach’s dismissal, with Divac talking Ranadive out of it.
Whatever happened, this is just the latest in a seemingly never-ending cycle of dysfunction within the organization. Karl has only coached the Kings for one full season’s worth of games after taking over last year for interim head coach Tyrone Corbin, who took over for Mike Malone earlier in 2014-15.
Karl has gone 32-50 in his 82 games at the helm, and the Kings are currently in the midst of a four-game losing streak that’s seen an already bad defense sink to new lows. The Vertical’s Chris Mannix reported Monday that the players had tuned out Karl, and point guard Rajon Rondo complained after an ugly loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers that it’s hard to win games when only a few players are showing up to optional shootarounds.
Karl and Divac talked out many of the issues at Tuesday’s meeting, according to CBS Sports’ Ken Berger, and they’re determined to fix the bad habits that have cropped up.
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