Rick Adelman out as Sacramento Kings coach

HUH? I mean seriously, what does this guy have to do to get a break in life? I really believe Rick Adelman is the greatest NBA coach to never win an NBA championship. He takes the Trailblazers to the NBA Finals in 1990 and lost to the Pistons' Nasty Boys and their intimidation of all the officials, and then again in 1992, where he fell victim to the Michael Jordan gets every call no matter how hard we play disease. Not saying the Bulls weren't the better team, but the starting lineup of Ainge, Porter, Drexler, Williams, and Kersey is one of the better lineups of the 90's. Adelman did have a brief hiccup as head coach of the Golden State Warriors when he took Joe Smith from Maryland as the #1 pick in the 1995 NBA Draft. I guess Adelman did set a trend in that draft (which also produced Kevin Garnett) to pick unproven high school players instead of Naismith Award Winners if you want to build a franchise.

Anyway, Adelman eventually landed on my favorite team in the Western Conference, the Sacramento Kings. The Kings starting lineup in 2002 may have been the best starting lineup of the era with Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, Peja Stojakovic, Mike Bibby, and Doug Christie. It was that same year that he took the Kings to the Western Conference Finals, and in one of the best and most controversial series of all time, lost to the eventual champion Lakers in 7 games. It was during this series that he made the famous quote during an interview with Fox Sports: "I mean seriously, I'm sick of watching Shaq run people over, ask the official about it, and then have the official look at me like I'm crazy." It was in this series that Adelman ran into the Shaq is gonna get every call because we want the Lakers to be in the finals disease. The Kings never got to the conference finals again.

Rick Adelman deserves better than what he's gotten. First of all, he gets run out of Portland after, heaven-forbid, two NBA finals appearances. Then, he has to suffer through the Golden State Warriors' woes. Then, he brings the Kings to the brink of a championship, and then gets run out of town. Mind you, that this season, he had to coach Bonzi Wells and Ron Artest. This is AFTER he has to deal with Doug Christie AND his crazy wife.

I really hope the Maloofs don't hire Don Nelson (who is rumoured to be the replacement). While Adelman is probably the most underrated coach of all time, Nelson might be the most overrated (except for maybe George Karl). I never got why everyone sang his praises. His teams play no defense, and he has great teams fall into his lap. While Don Nelson was in Golden State, he had a young Tim Hardaway, Billy Owens, a Chris Mullin in his prime, Mitch Richmond in his prime, Manute Bol, and Latrell Spreewell pre-choking. What did Nelly do in the playoffs? One and done. While in Dallas, he INHERITED Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki, Michael Finley, and Nick Van Exel. Nelson, however, with such a star-studded cast, could not manage to teach anyone how to play defense and could never get out of the Western Conference. I'm sorry, I don't care how much of an "offensive genius" you are, you can't win in the NBA without stopping someone, and his teams have never shown me that they can.

Anyway, I can't say that I won't still be a Kings fan now even if they do bring in a coach I can't stand. But think about this- Don Nelson would walk into a team with Artest, Wells, Bibby, Miller, and the promising young rookie Garcia and the young future star Kevin Martin. The thing I hate about this is that the Kings are gonna be a good team next season with everyone healthy. And who's gonna be there to take all of Rick Adelman's glory?