DeMarcus Cousins and the Biggest Coach Killers in NBA History

Sacramento Kings head coach Paul Westphal was fired today after losing out on his ongoing feud with second-year player DeMarcus Cousins.

Westphal wasn't the first coach to lose his job over a player, and he certainly won't be the last. In an industry dominated by multimillion-dollar superstars, the coach is always going to lose.

For Cousins, it's kind of early in his career to get the coach-killer label.

Here's a look at him and some of the biggest coach killers in NBA history.

Magic Johnson

Everybody loves Magic, and while everything was smooth sailing under Pat Riley and the Showtime teams, it wasn't always that way in Los Angeles.

Before Riley there was Paul Westhead.

Before Showtime there was a "slow the game down and feed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar."

Magic wasn't having any of that. In the end, it was either him or Westhead.

Westhead lost.

Deron Williams

Williams killed the longest-tenured coach in the NBA by forcing Jerry Sloan out of Utah.

It was rumored that Williams led a mutiny against Sloan, and up until the day Sloan stepped down, Williams apparently wouldn't run the plays Sloan called.

After 23 seasons and 1,127 wins, one of the greatest coaches in NBA history had to step down because, it was rumored, he couldn't coach Williams any longer.

Gary Payton

Give Paul Westphal credit—he's the only coach on the list that has been the victim of a coach killer twice.

The first time came in Seattle.

Gary Payton and Vin Baker did in Westphal.

After suspending Payton for at least one game in 2000 for getting into a sideline argument with Westphal, Seattle SuperSonics management lifted the suspension and fired Westphal a week later.

You would think Westphal would have learned after a similar situation in Phoenix cost him his job in the 90s.

DeMarcus Cousins

But apparently Westphal never did learn, because his recent altercations with Cousins cost him yet another job.

The second he got into it with Cousins and sent him home for a game, he had to know the organization wouldn't have his back.

Jason Kidd

The New Jersey Nets hadn't won a division title in 24 years before Byron Scott arrived as head coach.

Scott took them to the NBA Finals but less than a year later was fired.

Just after that season, Kidd threatened to go to the San Antonio Spurs is Scott wasn't fired.

The Nets didn't fire him then, but after Kidd openly blamed Scott for a blowout loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, he was canned less then a month later.

Stephon Marbury

The cancerous Marbury had a reputation for never winning and causing problems at every stop along the way.

During the 2005-06 season, it was Marbury's frequent public spats with head coach Larry Brown that was a big reason Brown was let go.

The Knicks made the wrong choice here, as just a couple years later Marbury would have it out with another Knicks coach, this time Isiah Thomas.

Detroit Pistons

This is a collective coach killing, as Richard Hamilton, Rodney Stuckey, Chris Wilcox, Tayshaun Prince, Austin Daye and Tracy McGrady elected to hold a protest against coach John Kuester in one form or another.

Some skipped shoot-arounds and practices, while others showed up at practice as it was ending.

Whether or not Kuester was a good coach is beyond the point.

He had no chance of survival after that type of incident.

Steve Nash

Nash won a pair of MVPs in Mike D'Antoni's up-tempo system, one that he thrived in.

When D'Antoni left for New York, Terry Porter was hired and instituted a new, defensively oriented system.

Nash's numbers dropped, and he didn't like that.

After Nash openly criticized Porter on the Dan Patrick Radio Show, Porter was fired a couple days later and replaced with Alvin Gentry.

Michael Jordan

Midway through the 1988-89 season, then Bulls coach Doug Collins decided to switch Jordan from the 2-guard spot to the point guard.

Jordan did not like this idea, even though people around the game thought it was a brilliant move.

In essence, Collins committed career suicide.

Despite the Bulls reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time, Collins was fired before the next season started.

Jordan and Phil Jackson won countless rings together while Collins is still in search of his first.

Who knows how things may have turned out differently with Jordan at the point?

Latrell Sprewell

Sprewell cracks the list, because he's the only coach killer who took the term literally and actually tried to kill his coach.

Sprewell went after then Golden State Warriors coach P.J. Carlesimo, choked him and then threatened to kill him only three days after being fined for missing a team flight.