Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive told USA Today's Sam Amick that former general manager Pete D'Alessandro and coach Michael Malone "hated each other's guts." In an extensive interview, Ranadive acknowledged that it's not best to hire a coach before a general manager, adding that the two of them were disconnected from the very beginning.
"I mean from Day One, the GM (Pete D'Alessandro, who now works with Malone in Denver as the Senior Vice President of Business and Team Operations) and him didn't get along. They hated each other's guts. They didn't even want to share an assistant. Then later on, I found out that the GM had fired a [Shareef Abdur-Rahim] who was part of the coaching staff and had sued us. [...]
"And in retrospect, when I was told about (the Abdur-Rahim exit), I was shocked at some of the things that had happened. But there was - they tried to fire (Malone) right from the get-go, and I was peacemaker. In fact, (team president) Chris (Granger) was in the office when I sat everybody down and I said, 'Guys, this is - we're all in one boat.' My exact (message) was, 'You can't say there's a hole in the other person's side of the boat, because if there's a hole in the boat we all sink.'...These two guys (Malone and D'Alessandro), they never spoke. They hated each other. They hated each other's guts. It was like one person would say one thing, and then the other person would say another thing. And they wanted to get rid of him very early on, and I was the one who said 'No, no, let's make it work. Let's make it work.'"
So, the Kings were dysfunctional -- who knew?
In all seriousness, what Ranadive is describing is an awful working environment. It also sounds like he is trying to distance himself from the debacle -- there were reports that Ranadive himself was obsessed with the idea of the team playing faster, and he overstepped his boundaries as an owner. The way he's framing it, he had nothing to do with it, other than making the hires in the wrong order -- this was simply a personality conflict between Malone and D'Alessandro.
The end of Malone's tenure remains an embarrassing time Sacramento history. After years of losing, coaching changes and the threat of the team moving, the Kings finally appeared to be heading in the right direction. Then franchise player DeMarcus Cousins got viral meningitis, they lost a few games and Malone was out of a job. The rest of the season was a disaster, and someone should write a book about Cousins and George Karl's time together. Only now does Sacramento seem to perhaps be back on track, with a new coach who shares a lot of Malone's qualities.
Related news: Last week, Malone sat down for a podcast with The Vertical's Adrian Wojnarowski. The two were joined by Denver Nuggets general manager Tim Connelly. The main subject of discussion: the dynamic between general managers and coaches in the NBA.
