For the last 20 years, the Sacramento Kings have generally been one of the worst teams in the league. But that wasn't always the case. Late head coach Rick Adelmen led the Kings to eight consecutive playoff appearances, and letting him go damned the team to non-stop obscurity.
A legendary coach in the NBA from 1977 until 2014, Adelman recently passed away at the age of 79. He was only two weeks out from his 80th birthday. While the official cause of death wasn't released, that hasn't stopped the league from honoring him. That's been doubly true in Sacramento.
Adelman spent eight seasons with the Kings, taking them to the playoffs every single time, including the Western Conference Finals in 2002. That remains a franchise best record in the Sacramento era. Unfortunately, they didn't make it past the Lakers in one of the league's most controversial series.
Letting Adelman leave Sacramento
After a first-round exit in 2006, the Kings' ownership at the time, the Maloof brothers, chose not to re-sign Adelman and let him walk. Even though he had turned the Kings into a playoff regular, he did not get along with them and didn't share their philosophy on how to run the franchise.
By the end of the 2005-2006 season, many of the Kings' stars from that era had been traded or were aging out of the league. From the Maloofs' perspective, it was time to begin the next phase of the Kings' evolution, and that meant getting rid of a head coach they allegedly kept butting heads with.
It was the beginning of two decades of suffering for Sactown fans. There have been 13 head coaches in that time, none of whom lasted longer than three seasons. And only Mike Brown managed to get them back to the playoffs once. He was promptly fired for his success by current management.
The Adelman era was Sacramento's only successful run
Essentially, Adelman was let go because the Maloofs believed that they could build something better without him. They did not. Post-Adelman, the franchise became an almost permanent resident of the league's basement, only climbing out on exceedingly rare occasions.
Letting Adelman leave was the beginning of a vicious cycle that continued through the sale of the franchise to Vivek Ranadive's team. Making matters worse is the fact that Ranadive seems to suffer from the same lack of long-term thinking and personal biases that hamstringed the Maloofs.
The only bright spot is the current general manager, Scott Perry, who seems to have finally convinced Ranadive to work on a real rebuild. If that pans out, the Kings actually might be able to find some real, sustained success for the first time since the days of Rick Adelman.
