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Westphal not DeMarcus Cousins out of Sacramento Kings
The NBA's Sacramento Kings announced the firing of coach Paul Westphal, days after his public complaints about and benching of center DeMarcus Cousins.
The Sacramento Kings' President of Operations, Geoff Petrie made the announcement of Westphal's firing Thursday morning installing assistant coach Keith Smart as interim head coach.
The Kings play a game in a few hours against the Milwaukee Bucks and Smart, a former head coach at Golden State will assume the role immediately. Smart was fired after the end of last season, ushering in the era of Mark Jackson at the helm of the club.
Westphal whose record this year was 2-5 with a winning percentage in his time with the club of less than .300 issued a gracious written statement in which he burned no bridges and took his punishment like an adult.
"I would like to thank the Maloof family for the incredible opportunity they gave me to participate in the attempt to bring the Sacramento Kings back to prominence. While the job is far from finished, I am proud of the strides we were able to make.
Finally, I want to thank my loyal staff and players for their efforts in attempting to climb out of the hole we shared. Nothing comes easy in the NBA and I know they will not rest in their efforts to rebuild this team."
The firestorm that Paul Westphal took public seems to have ended his time with the Kings. Claiming that the second-year center out of the University of Kentucky's behavior was "detrimental to the team", Westphal issued a statement saying that Cousins was suspended indefinitely, at least for the next game against the New Orleans.
The coach claimed that DeMarcus Cousins bellowed at his coach, "Trade Me", which was vehemently denied by the player as well as his agent. With Westphal's firing, it is clear that the team's ownership has chosen to stick with Cousins, who it is hoped will mature enough to be a powerful one-two punch with point guard Tyreke Evans.
Cousins has been known to be disruptive in the past, causing him to be suspended during his time at Kentucky as well as in his first year in Sacramento. In December 2010 Coach Westphal suspended him for one game after he used the universal choking gesture towards an opponent, during a Kings loss to the Golden State Warriors.
Less than two months after that incident, Cousins was suspended for another game, this time for getting into a physical altercation with teammate Donte Greene. Reports of the scuffle say that a verbal disagreement ended in fisticuffs after a game in which the Kings lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder, after Greene failed to make a last second three-point attempt.
The Maloofs, owners of the Sacramento Kings are on borrowed time in the city. The team was on the cusp of leaving last spring, in a much rumored deal that would have installed them in the Honda Center in Anaheim, CA. The NBA decided to give the city and its mayor Mayor Kevin Johnson one more season to come with a plan and the financial help to get the team a new arena.
There is a March 1, 2012 deadline on having a plan in place or the Kings will sail off into the sunset for good.
source: twitter, facebook, yahoo, nba.com
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