Time To Say Adios To Rick

This is particularly harsh, especially coming so close to the good will and mirth conjured up by Christmas. The holiday season aside, it’s time for the Sacramento Kings to fire head coach Rick Adelman, which makes it all the more harsh because he’s a good coach who deserves better and because the losses piling up in Sacramento are not his fault. Just the same, it needs to be done now and not at the end of the season as has seemed to be the plan all along.

The truth is, the Kings stink and the owners and the players are the stinkees, not Adelman. His teams have won 718 NBA games in 15-plus years, and his winning percentage at better than 60-percent is one of the tops in the League. He’s had players of lesser talent who have won, but never players with lesser heart than this current team. He hasn’t had the support of the players or the team owners all year as he lingers in coaching purgatory as a lame duck in the last year of his contract. If he can’t see the writing on the wall, his players can and they quit him a long time ago.

The Maloofs did the same by tinkering away with a good product; adding a piece here and there until all athleticism and chemistry vanished. Who knows how they really feel about Adelman as a coach? They seem far more interested in getting their mugs on MTV and flipping the pockets out of their Armani pants to show the city of Sacramento they don’t have enough money for a new arena. Anaheim beckons and this ownership clan will fit right in with the collagen and silicon crowd down south.

As for the players, they should all be sharpening their writing skills to craft the right letter of apology to Adelman. Without a strong coach who is backed by management, this has become a leaderless team. Surely a professional player can see what the fans see and you’d thing pride alone would give one of these Alpha Males the desire to lead. Mike Bibby was the obvious choice but he didn’t even have the discipline to come into training camp in shape. He muddled through the pre-season and the early games, treating them as nothing more than an aerobics class at the local gym. His shot was off, he was a step too slow, and his defensive play looked about as sharp as white socks with a black suit. Who would follow the lead of a player who cared so little that the gift of being one of the world’s greatest athletes seemed to be a burden and not worth the effort?

This season will mark the end of Peja Stojakovic as a King and it seems the right time to pack up his wide ties and wide pin-stripe suits and ship him off to New York or Philly where they will throw beer cups at him for his lack of effort. Has there ever been a player who runs from rebounds and fears mixing it up in the middle more than Peja? People used to compare Peja to Larry Bird but the truth is he will go down as a timid, spot-up shooter who lost his will when Vlade Divac left the Kings. Any team willing to part with $12 million a year for him as a free agent deserves what they get.

Brad Miller is certainly no leader and I’m not sure if the players really like him anyway. He’s temperamental, slow of foot, short for a center, can’t jump and makes big stiffs like Joe Przybilla and Eddy Curry look like the second coming of Wilt. He can shoot a mid-range jumper, pass well for a center, and have the occasional good game on the boards, but he looks spent this year after watching too many passes fly through the hands of players who don’t have their head in the game.

The Kings are 10-17, have dropped five straight and are 3-9 for the month of December. They have lost nine of 16 games at home this year, which is already more losses in a season at Arco Arena then they have endured since the 1999 season. They have the collective talent to be a better team but there’s just something wrong with the mix. It’s tough to watch the Lakers win with only Kobe and a group of players who would ride the bench for most teams, including the Kings. The Lakers winning puts the spotlight on the obvious: good coaching and leadership make a difference.

There are a number of sports clichés, among them that the coaches get fired because you can’t fire the team. The good people of Anaheim may facilitate the equivalent of a mass firing of the players, but until then, coach Adelman has to go and a caretaker put in his place. This season is shot and next year the Kings will have to start over with new faces and maybe a new hometown. It’s difficult to see a better coach out there, which is further evidence that the ownership doesn’t know what they’re doing. Last year the Maloofs had Maurice Cheeks, Nate McMillan, Larry Brown, Flip Saunders and even Phil Jackson to lure to Sacramento with their inherited money. Who do they have to court at the end of this year?

John McKay, the great football coach at USC and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers was once asked a stupid question by a rookie sports writer from California who was out of league. “What do you think about your team’s execution?” he was asked after losing 33-6 to the Dallas Cowboys in a playoff game. Steam came out of his ears as he searched the room for the weasel who asked such a stupid question. And then the answer, “I’m for it.” After tonight’s lackluster performance by the Kings against the former worst team in the Western Conference Rick Adelman knows exactly what McKay was talking about.