in NBA Articles

 

Owners did not like Adelman

Rick Adelman must have known that the pink slip was inevitable. Last summer, Sacramento’s ownership flirted with Zen, attempting to hire Phil Jackson even though Adelman had a year remaining on his deal to coach the Kings.

This season, the front office refused to give Adelman a contract extension or publicly endorse his status as coach, making him a lame duck sideline boss.

Under these circumstances, it’s not surprising that the Kings fired their longtime coach, despite Adelman winning 395 games and the club making the playoffs in eight consecutive seasons.

Adelman was fired for three reasons:

1) Sacramento’s owners, Joe and Gavin Maloof, never appreciated Adelman’s prickly personality. This personality conflict led the Maloofs to place that infamous phone call to former rival ‘Phil-Jax’ last July. After the Kings wooing of Jackson became public knowledge, the Maloofs and Adelman were unable to mend their relationship.

2) After eight seasons, Adelman’s message must have been getting stale. During certain points of the season, players like Mike Bibby and Brad Miller appeared to tune out their coach. It’s a sad fact, but NBA coaches have a short shelf life and Adelman’s time had simply run out.

3) Kobe misses the drive, Vlade Divac taps the rock out to the perimeter, and Robert Horry nails the game-winning three-point basket. Horry’s clutch three-pointer in game four of the 2002 Western Conference Final forever changed the Sacramento franchise. If Sacramento had won that game, they would have taken the series, advanced to the NBA Finals and likely won it all. The Kings ended up losing the series to the Lakers; Adelman and the Sacramento franchise have never recovered from that moment.

Adelman’s time with the Kings is finally over. But look for him to secure another NBA coaching job-and soon.

Is Bonzi Wells another Jerome James?

Bonzi Wells was the team’s best player in their series with San Antonio. But does he deserve a sixty million dollar contract for one solid playoff performance?

Two words King fans: Jerome James. Last year, James had a decent playoff for Seattle and managed to bamboozle the New York Knicks into giving him a thirty million dollar contract. James then reported to camp out of shape and even with all that girth, he somehow got ABC Lost on Larry Brown’s bench.

Sacramento should consider the saga of James and avoid overpaying the emotional Wells. Last year, Memphis kicked Wells off the team and banned the two-guard from stepping in the arena for playoff games.

Who was this Ron Artest in Sacramento?

Who was this Ron Artest that spent the last few months in Sacramento? He went to practice, acted professionally, and managed to avoid trouble?

Basketball fans are not familiar with this Ron Artest.

Could he be the same Ron Artest that requested a month off during the season to promote a music album? Could he be the same Ron Artest that brought the Ultimate Fighting Championship to the stands of Detroit? Could he be the same Ron Artest that ditched the Pacers in December, ruining his former team’s season?

Jokes aside, the Kings deserve credit for rolling some serious dice and taking a chance on Artest. However, signing him to a lucrative contract extension is an even greater gamble. Good ‘Ron-Ron’ played brilliantly for Sacramento, but bad ‘Ron-Ron’, with the security of a multi-year extension in his back pocket, could easily re-emerge and ruin the franchise.

Artest needs check and balances, so the Kings should only offer him a lucrative, short-term extension that’s loaded with incentives. This would force Artest to behave and his short-term contract would always hold value on the trade market.

Raja Bell owes his mom on Mother’s Day!

After game five, Kobe Bryant told reporters that Raja Bell was angry because he “hadn’t been hugged enough as a child.” Those words lit a fire under one person-Raja Bell’s mom. Following game seven, Mrs. Bell allegedly found Bryant as he was escaping the court and told the Lakers’ star that he looked “like someone who needed a hug.”

Under normal circumstances, mothers, wives, and girlfriends should avoid talking trash. After all, mothers, wives, and girlfriends are usually the subject of player trash talk. But Mrs. Bell dropped an all-world, Gary Payton-esque zinger on Bryant.

Apparently, Bryant was left speechless. Next stop for Mrs. Bell: the Jim Rome Smackoff.

After the second-half of game seven, can we ever again compare Kobe to Mike?

Kobe can score like Mike. Kobe can defend like Mike. Kobe can elevate on his jump shot like Mike. Kobe can talk to reporters like Mike. And Kobe can even do a fist pump like Mike after hitting game winning shots.

But Kobe Bryant can never be Michael Jordan!

He never will be either. The series against Phoenix proved it, so the comparisons between
#8/the future #24 and #23 need to stop-and now. Kobe fans must cease and desist with all that second-coming of Mike propaganda.

After all, Bell completely killed Bryant’s will to compete in the second half of game seven. It’s also tough to believe Kobe’s argument that he was simply staying in the flow of the triple-post offense. With the series on-the-line, the so-called reincarnation of Mike needed to take more than three second-half shots and there are allegations that he abandoned his teammates.

Jordan lost a few playoff battles, but no opponent killed his will to compete or made him quit in the second half of a crucial game seven showdown.

John Starks never showed ‘His Airness’ up. And Jordan is the reason Reggie Miller only enjoyed playoff success in Madison Square Garden against Spike Lee and the New York Knicks. Joe Dumars and his ‘Bad Boys’ knocked Mike out of the postseason, but they never took his heart.

Bottom line: no opponent ever embarrassed Jordan like Bell and the Suns embarrassed Bryant on Saturday night.

Oly Sandor is an NBA analyst and a basketball journalist based out of Vancouver, Canada. His basketball writing has appeared on countless sites. He can also be heard on various radio stations. Send him an email at OlySandorNBAGuru@yahoo.com.