Tyrone Corbin Fired as Kings Head Coach: Latest Details, Comments and Reaction

With George Karl set to become the next coach of the Sacramento Kings, per ESPN.com's Marc Stein, the team announced on Thursday that head coach Tyrone Corbin has been relieved of his head-coaching duties, per a press release.     

He will remain with the organization as a front-office advisor, however, as the press release went on to detail. General manager Pete D'Alessandro provided a comment:

"

I have the utmost respect for Tyrone as a coach and person. He’s a man of great integrity, a consummate professional that managed a difficult situation with class and professionalism. I look forward to continuing to work with Tyrone moving forward.

"

Corbin became the team's coach after Mike Malone was somewhat surprisingly fired in December, and there were reports that he had signed a contract to coach the team through the 2014-15 season. But the Kings began the very public courting of Karl not long after, much to the chagrin of mercurial star DeMarcus Cousins.

Corbin, to his credit, handled the madness quite well, as Chicago Bulls radio announcer Chuck Swirsky noted on Twitter:

Corbin had a rough go of it as the Kings coach, leading the team to a 7-21 record since he took over for Malone. The team is 18-34 on the season. Corbin previously spent four years as the coach of the Utah Jazz, going 112-146 in that time, leading the Jazz to the postseason in 2011-12, though they were swept in the first round.

Corbin will likely put his name back in the coaching hat after the season, but for the time being he has gracefully accepted a role in the team's front office after a public coaching search was undertaken to replace him.

NBA teams around the league will likely take notice of how Corbin handled himself during that time.