Maloofs' Handling Of Decision Was Gutless

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">For a family that prides itself and promotes itself as being classy and caring about its employees, the Maloofs should be ashamed of the gutless way in which they handled the decision not to bring back Kings coach Rick Adelman.

Maybe it's one of the perks of having millions of dollars and always running things, but the Maloofs put Kings president of basketball operations Geoff Petrie in the uncomfortable position of doing their dirty work.

It wasn't Petrie who decided against bringing back Adelman and his coaching staff. It was the Maloofs. And so, it should have been them, or at least one of them, to face the media. Who knows, maybe they could have even told the truth.

When Joe Maloof talked on the telephone to Adelman on Monday afternoon during a five-minute conversation, the boss could have told him, "Rick, we're not going to re-sign you. Thank you for your hard work."

Forget that garbage about not having known what they were going to do. They knew for the longest they didn't want to bring Adelman back. Unless, of course, a surprising playoff run had forced their hands to do what they really didn't want to do.

And then, once Joe and Gavin talked, and decided not to bring back Adelman, wouldn't a conference call among the three been what classy and caring owners should have orchestrated? Or even better, these are two guys who get on charter planes in a minute to appear on talk shows, so they certainly could have made arrangements in their schedules to get away for less than a day.

But no, they stepped away and had Petrie make the phone call.

The Maloofs are the owners and can do what they want. Nonetheless, there are ways to handle your business, and these dudes punked out big-time.

They were as cowardly as the Lion in "The Wizard of Oz" without the long tails to wipe their eyes.

It becomes clearer and clearer that the Maloofs are fans/owners with millions of bucks and feeling themselves. They forced the move to trade for Ron Artest, and that has turned out well - so far. But Artest shot 38 percent from the field (33 percent from three-point range). He attempted more than five three-pointers a game among his 16 field-goal attempts. Yet, you read Joe Maloof talking about Ron-Ron's playoff performance, and you'd swear MJ circa 1992 were here.

In the past, Artest has compared himself to Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, and offensively, that couldn't be further from the truth. And the Maloofs certainly had better hire a replacement - Mario Elie, Eddie Jordan - who can get Artest to realistically assess his strengths and weaknesses, and only then will he become more coachable.

Regardless of what the Maloofs feel about Adelman's coaching methods, in the end this decision was about personalities. Generally speaking, the Maloofs didn't care for Adelman and his manner of going about his job and then going home. They didn't hire him, and he wasn't their type of coach or person.

Adelman is not a schmoozer. He's a private man who generally doesn't hang out with anyone but his family. And, in this instance, that hurt him.

And it's not as if he was without responsibility here. Adelman is a funny, sometimes hilarious dude with a sense of humor as biting as the January wind in Chicago. But it's not his personality to reveal that or himself to many people.</div>

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Some harsh comments written by the local paper (Sacramento Bee) which covers the Kings. This resentment could really jeopardize the new stadium deal the Maloofs are also involved in.

Was it the right move to let Adelman walk and get a new voice in the locker room?

I would have liked to have seen what the Kings could do in a full season with Ron Artest on the floor for them, and bringing back Bonzi Wells. Those two really fed off one another in the Spurs series, and present a touch matchup for the opposition.