UPDATE (Thursday, April 14, 10:40am) -- The Kings fired George Karl, the team announced.
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SACRAMENTO -- George Karl will be relieved of his duties as head coach of the Kings on Thursday morning, sources told CSNCalifornia.com.
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Karl, 64, took over the Kings with 30 games remaining in the 2014-15 season. The future Hall of Fame coach had the resumé that Sacramento was looking for, bringing a 1131-756 career regular season record to the table.
But Karl never seemed to fit the fit in. Pete D’Alessandro, the man who hired Karl, was let go just months after he was hired and he never truly formed a bond with new general manager Vlade Divac.
Adding to the angst, the relationship between he and franchise cornerstone DeMarcus Cousins became taxed almost immediately and he struggled to connect with a locker room filled with experienced veterans.
Karl’s first mistake came in April of last season when his remarks to the press appeared to call out his All-Star big.
NBA
“I’ve had some great players and I’ve never had one player that I have said is untradeable,” Karl told media members in Sacramento. “You always got to be ready for the possibility of a great trade that could come your way.”
Karl later apologized to Cousins for the statement, but the damage was already done and the team contemplated yet another coaching change last summer.
The Kings almost pulled the plug on the Karl experiment after a 1-7 start to begin the season and then again after a 128-119 loss in Brooklyn to the Nets on Feb. 5.
After a long discussion leading into the All-Star break, Karl was given the final 30 games to turn things around and get the team into the playoffs.
While Sacramento has played better recently, it was too little, too late. Coming into the final game with a record of 33-48, the Kings missed the playoffs for the tenth consecutive season, leaving Karl out of options and the team looking in a new direction.
The veteran coach won’t walk away empty handed. He signed a four-year deal $14.5 million deal in February of 2015. $11 million was guaranteed, leaving the Kings on the hook for roughly $6.5 million.
Karl is the eighth coach to exit the job during the last 10 seasons since Rick Adelman left the team. And he’s the 16th coach to man the position since the Kings moved to Sacramento from Kansas City before the 1985-86 season.
He leaves the Kings as the NBA’s fifth winningest coach all-time, notching 1175 regular season wins over a 27-year career.
It is unknown at this time what Karl’s departure means for assistant coaches Chad Iske, John Welch, Corliss Williamson, Anthony Carter and Nancy Lieberman.