George Karl Fired by Kings: Latest Details, Comments and Reaction

The drama-filled 2015-16 Sacramento Kings season ended Wednesday, and the firing of head coach George Karl followed almost instantly.

The Kings announced Karl would not be returning as head coach for the 2016-17 season in an official release on NBA.com, in which general manager Vlade Divac issued a statement on the decision not to retain him:

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After evaluating the team's performance this season, I determined it was necessary to move forward with a new voice from the head coaching position. I have a great deal of respect and admiration for George and his accomplishments throughout his nearly 30 years in the NBA. On behalf of everyone in the Kings organization, I thank him for the contributions made during his time in Sacramento and wish him good fortune in the future.

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Karl signed a four-year, $15 million contract in February of 2015, and Sacramento hoped the former Coach of the Year who led the Seattle SuperSonics to the 1996 NBA Finals would right the ship for the struggling franchise. Instead, there have been defensive lapses, inconsistent production from many in the rotation and plenty of noise off the court.

The result has been more losing than winning, and the Kings elected to move in a different direction after ending their season in typically disastrous fashion, losing to Houston 116-81 on Wednesday. Karl finished his time in Sacramento with a 44-68 record after taking over midway through the 2014-15 season.

The news isn't particularly surprising considering Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical reported Wednesday that the Kings were planning on firing Karl after the season.

Wojnarowski reported in February that Divac and owner Vivek Ranadive were so "livid" following a loss to the dismal Brooklyn Nets that they strongly considered firing Karl at that point.

Wojnarowski noted Karl lost support both in management and from some factions of the locker room. What's more, there was "dissatisfaction" with the defensive performance of the team. ESPN Stats & Info highlighted just how much the Kings struggled on the defensive side this season (as of April 13):

While it seemed all but certain the coach would be out of a job in February, Marc Stein of ESPN.com cited sources and reported the Kings elected to hold on to him after a meeting with Divac. Karl apparently said he would change some of the things he did in practice and his defensive strategies during that meeting, per Stein, which was enough to earn Divac's backing.

That backing clearly didn't last.

While the on-court results were concerning during Karl's tenure, it is also impossible to ignore the strained dynamic between the coach and the Kings' franchise player, DeMarcus Cousins, which dominated many of the headlines since Sacramento hired him.

Jason McIntyre of The Big Lead reported Cousins cussed Karl out in the locker room following a November loss to the San Antonio Spurs. McIntyre added there was a subsequent meeting, and Divac even asked the team whether Karl should be fired.

Cousins did offer an apology for the tirade, per Marc J. Spears of Yahoo Sports, although Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee said Karl wanted to suspend the big man for his actions. However, Divac said the coach didn't have the proper authority to make that move, according to Jones.

This was not the first time the relationship between Karl and Cousins came under the microscope. An ESPN.com report in the offseason said Ranadive would not allow Karl to trade Cousins, and James Herbert of CBS Sports detailed more of the drama:

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Cousins used emojis to call Karl a snake in the grass on Twitter when the coach was reportedly trying to get the franchise player traded. Even before that, though, there were concerns -- Cousins' camp was reportedly against the Karl hire in the first place, and Karl acknowledged "the skepticism of his agent" in March. Late last season, Karl declined to call Cousins "untradeable," and then Divac contradicted him in May.

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In addition to the drama with Cousins, Karl didn't shy away from publicly criticizing his team when it struggled on the floor.

Jones passed along some of the coach's quotes following an inexplicable Dec. 30 loss to the abysmal Philadelphia 76ers that left the home fans booing:

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I told the team inconsistent intensity, inconsistent focus, inconsistent toughness and mental discipline. Too many times we've come out on this court and been the quiet team, or the soft team or the cool team and not the man team. …

My feeling is we have too many offensive players and not enough defensive players. We don't have enough guts to make stops.

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Herbert thought it was unfair for Karl to escape some of the blame for the team's defensive woes, even if the coach bemoaned the roster makeup and the effort of his players: "It would not be fair, though, to completely let Karl off the hook here. While he's coached excellent defensive teams before, he's always been known as more of an offense-first guy. It is extremely difficult to coax good defense out of players who are used to being scorers, but that is part of his job."

Even with a struggling defense and issues off the court, the Kings were playoff contenders for a stretch of the season. They won five straight in January to throw themselves in the race for a top-eight seed in the Western Conference, but they failed to maintain that momentum under Karl.

In fact, they proceeded to go 1-8 in their next nine games following the winning streak, which essentially dashed any realistic postseason hopes.

Karl is 64 years old and likely a future Hall of Famer, but his tenure with the Kings seemed almost doomed from the start following his public incidents involving Cousins and the reports of Divac discussing a potential firing with the players. It is par for the course from the franchise considering the next coaching hire will be the fourth (interim included) since Ranadive assumed the role of owner in 2013.

Whoever the Kings bring in next will have a talented but flawed nucleus to build around, anchored by Cousins, and faces an uphill battle to help the team take the next step. Cousins has proved to be a tough star to coach, and if the next boss can't get him to buy in, the Kings will continue to flounder. 

At least Sacramento reached the 30-win mark this year for the first time since the 2007-08 season. Perhaps the next coach will build on that and finally lead this team into contention in the difficult Western Conference.