MORE Drama in Sac Town

Well, Demarcus Cousins will not be traded by the Sacramento Kings. Instead, they fired head coach Paul Westphal and replaced him with assistant coach Keith Smart, previously the head coach of the Golden State Warriors.


Wait, what?


Yes, apparently the sophomore Cousins has enough pull within the Kings organization to get PAUL WESTPHAL fired. This move made absolutely no sense, despite the Kings being an atrocious team since the departure of Rick Adelman. No coach could possibly lead the Kings to the playoffs in the shape they're in, what with how stupidly young the team is and how undisciplined the entire team is. Jimmer Fredette might be a bright point for the team behaviorally, but Tyreke Evans and Demarcus Cousins seem to be totally incapable of controlling their emotions on the court.


Cousins has also been infamous for being a volatile player dating back to high school. He came out of college after his rookie season, and now many of his former teammates are saying they're glad Cousins is gone because he disrupted their team's dynamic.


Why does Demarcus Cousins have this kind of pull with the Kings? It's not like he's an elite young player; he isn't Blake Griffin or Derrick Rose. Cousins has the potential to be a starter on any team in the NBA, but he will probably never reach elite status. Do the Kings really think they can move forward with Keith Smart as their head coach? He couldn't coach his way out of a paper bag when he was with Oakland, so what's the deal?


It's not like there are any coaches out there who are "free agents" either, other than assistant coaches. Phil Jackson and Jerry Sloan are the biggest name coaches not affiliated with any team right now, but both have avowed they are done with coaching. John Calipari's name is frequently thrown around for being a potential college coach to make the jump to the NBA in the future, but he swears he will be retiring from coaching in 2014.


You can see how little Chris Webber even cares, admitting on air on Inside the NBA that he has no idea what the King's record is, just that their team is awful. For the record, no team has played more than 7 games as of this writing, so it's not that hard to even just guess their record. Webber, probably the most well-known King of all-time, doesn't care about how awful his former team is now. He's just as puzzled to why Westphal was fired, despite the losing record.


The Kings are being run to the ground by the Maloof family, who are trying to pressure the city of Sacramento in building a new arena for the Kings using taxpayer money, because that's exactly what the state of California needs right now: a taxpayer funded arena for a team that has never won a championship while located in Sacramento. Los Angeles is getting a new football stadium only because AEG is self-funding the construction. If the Maloofs can't get their stadium, they're threatening to move to... Anaheim? The Lakers and Clippers have both already said they will veto a move by the Kings to Anaheim, due to the Kings taking away TV time from the Lakers and Clippers and TV money.


So what are the Kings to do? There's been rumors they could move to Las Vegas, but David Stern has said on multiple occasions that he will never allow legalized gambling on NBA games. There's also been the idea of straight up contracting the Kings. No one on the team is older than 33, so if the team were to split up, 18 teams could use all that young talent.


The internet could also use a lot less Kings fans, noted for being the most annoying NBA fans on the interwebs. It's been 10 years since the Kings lost in the Western Conference Finals and they still can't get over it. Really? Ten years? Ten years ago the Yankees had just lost a 7 game series to the Arizona Diamondbacks. No one in New York is complaining about it. Ten years ago, the New England Patriots defeated the St. Louis Rams with a last second field goal in the Super Bowl. The Rams have fallen into similar obscurity, but I don't see any Rams fans complaining about it.


Please, just take the Kings away from the NBA, everything will be much better if they do. I can't stand the Kings constantly getting a top 5 draft pick every year and then proceeding to utterly squander them.