Dave Joerger Says 'I Bled Purple' After Vlade Divac, Kings Fired Him as HC

Former Sacramento Kings head coach Dave Joerger said he had a "great relationship" with general manager Vlade Divac and "bled purple" before getting fired Thursday.

Joerger appeared on KHTK's Grant Napear Show (h/t James Ham of NBC Sports Bay Area) on Friday to discuss his tenure in Sacramento

"I bled purple, there is no doubt," he said. "That will always run deep for me. I see why Rick Adelman gave everything he had and how much he loved it here. Certainly I was hoping to try to bring that level of success to Sacramento, but I'm extremely thankful for the relationships that I've built."

Although things didn't ultimately work out for the 45-year-old Minnesota native, he's hopeful the franchise will find success in the near future.

"Coaches come and go," Joerger told Napear. "My dream was to get the Sacramento Kings into the playoffs, and I'm looking forward to that group making the playoffs in the near future, and that will make me feel as good as anything ever."

The Kings relived Joerger of his duties after he led them to a 98-148 record during his three seasons at the helm.

Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reported the news after he noted general manager Vlade Divac was planning on firing Joerger during a Thursday meeting.

While Sacramento improved from 27 wins in 2017-18 to 39 in 2018-19 with promising young pieces to build around in De'Aaron Fox, Buddy Hield and Marvin Bagley III, there was apparently plenty working against Joerger. 

Sam Amick of The Athletic reported the Kings' 9-17 finish to the season "fueled the notion that the 45-year-old Joerger is in peril," especially after they lost to the New Orleans Pelicans without Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday and Julius Randle and the Portland Trail Blazers without Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum, Al Farouq-Aminu, Moe Harkless, Enes Kanter, Rodney Hood and Evan Turner.

What's more, Amick noted there were "trust issues" between Joerger and assistant general manager Brandon Williams prior to this firing.

The 2016-17 campaign was Joerger's first season with the Kings and also marked his first losing effort as a head coach in the NBA. He guided the Memphis Grizzlies to the playoffs three straight seasons from 2013-16 and accumulated a 147-99 record.

However, Memphis fired him after the 2015-16 season, and the Kings hired him just days later.

At the time, Sacramento was striving for stability as Joerger became the team's ninth head coach since Rick Adelman led it to the playoffs in 2006. Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee noted Divac "said the Kings' instability is over with the hiring of Joerger" at the time.

That was apparently not the case given Thursday's firing. 

Joerger had the Kings in the playoff chase at points during the 2016-17 season but never made a complete push to join the league's upper ranks.

Any chance they had from a talent perspective likely ended during the All-Star break when they traded DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans for a package that included Hield and multiple draft picks.

The shift to rebuild mode was clear after the Kings failed to make the playoffs in Cousins' six full seasons with them.

The rebuilding led to a 32-50 record in his first season with Sacramento and 27-55 showing in his second.

However, things turned around during the 2018-19 campaign when the young talent in place started to play well together. The Kings were in the playoff race deeper into the season than at any other point during Joerger's tenure and showed promise with Fox, Hield and Bagley.

Still, it was the usage of Bagley early in the season that reportedly led to tension within the franchise, as Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports reported in November 2018 the front office looked at the season as a development one and was not pleased Joerger didn't play the 2018 No. 2 overall pick more in the early going.

While Bagley eventually earned more minutes and Joerger was not fired in the immediate aftermath of the report, the head coach was unable to see the entire rebuilding process through after guiding the Kings to so much losing early in his tenure.