Interview "Michael Malone explains how to coach DeMarcus Cousins"

[Bricklayer]

Why the hate for malone? A reporter asked him a question about the kings and he answered them. His last team was us and he is using us as a reference. And in all honesty he did get shafted so he has a right to be upset

Kings fans are looking for a way to feel good about themselves, so they are going to try to dump on Malone again. You know your position is weak when you get all upset when a straight shooter answers questions honestly.

We ****ed up. We were the bad guys. He has EVERY right to be aggrieved. And he had a good life and career going, we ****ed it for him. ****ed ourselves in the process. And yes, everybody outside of Sacramento talked about it, and is still talking about it. They won't stop asking those questions of Malone, or us, until a new season gets under way. Until that time that's the last relevant thing we did: inexplicably destroyed our season and ****ed a good young coach for no reason. Its also the last relevant thing that happened in Malone's career, so again, of course that is what people are going to talk about until he gets to write a new chapter too.

Here's what Kings fans can do about it: suck it up. Admit we screwed the pooch. If these articles are still taking place next offseason, then we can talk. Until next season begins the single most significant high profile thing the Kings have done in years was **** Michael Malone. So now we get to live with it until games start again and a new narrative can be written. You don't like feeling bad about yourself and picked on? Fine. Then don't **** up in the first place (and of course we as fans get taken along for the ride when ownership/frotn office moves backfire). But once you do, then have the balls to own it without making excuses and trying to dump on the one honorable man in the whole mess again. That's weak.

 

[NoBonus]

It does not matter one bit, but let me be clear: I was as upset about the Malone firing as anyone (besides, perhaps, Malone) last year. Really, really dumb and it cost Pete his job (and his GM career likely).

I am not trying to be an apologist for the Kings front office or any of that... Just tired of reading hit-pieces on the Kings (a trend that is waning a little in my opinion), so having an issue from last season resurrected right in the middle of what feels like a media firestorm of lies is very suspect to me.

And I stand by my comment that Malone, though fully justified, needs to focus his time and energy on the Nuggets, not Demarcus and the team that fired him. It is unprofessional and as someone who wants to see him succeed in Denver and a bleed-purple Kings fan, it is doubly frustrating.

I will take your advice, Brick, and just expect this nonsense until the season starts... after that, I will be back on this.

 

[Livinthedream]

At what point does an honest opinion about a situation cross the threshold into hate?

Malone had a choice how to answer the questions. Plenty of opportunity for Malone to say he's moved on and wants to talk about his new gig. There is enough drama and instability to discuss in Denver. Declining to comment doesn't make him any less of a straight shooter. It's simply professional.

Edit: I really like Malone. I just don't approve of his current actions.

 

[Padrino]

i have no problem whatsoever with mike malone's comments. remember, he still has much to prove as an nba head coach. there were a lot of doubters in sacramento, and there are surely doubters in denver, as well. last season, he had the kings on a winning path despite a patchwork roster of misfits and cast-offs, and after the kings' brass inexplicably fired malone, the team went into a flat spin reminiscent of Goose's death scene in 'Top Gun,' which speaks to the quality work that malone and his staff were doing before this franchise sabotaged itself. i'd draw attention to that fact, as well, if only to help the nuggets organization build confidence in his leadership heading into training camp. malone has oft struck me as a superior motivator; the work he did last offseason in bringing the kings together off the court was masterful, and that strategy paid early season dividends against many western conference heavy weights...

 

[John Galt]

I would not call it hate. I just prefer to move forward with the Kings and drop the remorse about the pass. Hardly anyone was more furious at the Kings for the awful firing of Malone... but now he's the enemy. And his choice to linger on a couple topics that put the Kings in a bad light are not becoming of a professional. Let him go prove it on the floor. He may have the first PG in NBA history to be on the receiving end of a "hack-a" strategy late in games. Let him worry about fixing that, and we'll worry about our business here in Sacramento.

I don't hate Malone - I wish he'd never been fired. But now I'm rooting against him.

 

[Livinthedream]

i have no problem whatsoever with mike malone's comments. remember, he still has much to prove as an nba head coach. there were a lot of doubters in sacramento, and there are surely doubters in denver, as well. last season, he had the kings on a winning path despite a patchwork roster of misfits and cast-offs, and after the kings' brass inexplicably fired malone, the team went into a flat spin reminiscent of Goose's death scene in 'Top Gun,' which speaks to the quality work that malone and his staff were doing before this franchise sabotaged itself. i'd draw attention to that fact, as well, if only to help the nuggets organization build confidence in his leadership heading into training camp. malone has oft struck me as a superior motivator; the work he did last offseason in bringing the kings together off the court was masterful, and that strategy paid early season dividends against many western conference heavy weights...

This agrees with John Galts argument that Malone is now our competitor and he's using what he can to lift his team up and keep the Kings or any other team down.

 

[Padrino]

I would not call it hate. I just prefer to move forward with the Kings and drop the remorse about the pass. Hardly anyone was more furious at the Kings for the awful firing of Malone... but now he's the enemy. And his choice to linger on a couple topics that put the Kings in a bad light are not becoming of a professional. Let him go prove it on the floor. He may have the first PG in NBA history to be on the receiving end of a "hack-a" strategy late in games. Let him worry about fixing that, and we'll worry about our business here in Sacramento.

I don't hate Malone - I wish he'd never been fired. But now I'm rooting against him.

this is rather melodramatic; mike malone responded to a series of reasonable questions, a bit leading though they may have been in nature. malone is an nba head coach, but one without significant head coaching experience. his first head coaching gig was with the sacramento kings. then he was inexplicably fired from the sacramento kings. now he's been hired by the denver nuggets. with little else to serve as a reference point, questions about his time coaching in sacramento are absolutely relevant to his future with the nuggets, and straightforward answers about his time coaching in sacramento are absolutely relevant to his future with the nuggets. how mike malone's simple and honest responses are being construed as "unprofessional" is beyond me...

while in sacramento, malone managed a difficult superstar-level talent in demarcus cousins. does that not strike you as relevant to discuss heading into a new coaching job, where he will surely have to manage a new set of egos and competing personalities? while in sacramento, malone also had disagreements with management and ownership as to the team's style of play, and those disagreements led to his ultimate dismissal. does that not strike you as relevant to discuss heading into a new coaching job, where he will surely have to contend with a management and ownership group that has never constructed a defense-first team?

 

[LPKingsFan]

I fail to see what is objectionable in either the questions or the responses.

 

[Chubbs]

What is it in that interview that people are objecting to?

The truth?

Michael Malone was being very very kind in that interview. He worked for utter lunatics who did things that made no sense on any level.

We fired an in demand young coach without cause. I'd be asking Malone those kinds of questions too.

That his answers put the Kings in a bad light? That's on the morons who fired him.

 

[Warhawk]

He has every right to be upset... but he shows his unprofessional side by bagging on his old team when he has a new team and a new job. I don't remember coach Karl coming in an bagging on Denver when we hired him... and here is why:

NO ONE CARES if the coach had his feelings hurt/whatever. We should care about what they are doing going forward with their new team.

I am not saying Malone should not have answered the questions; the interviewer was trying to write a Kings-hit piece for some reason and Malone was the sucker he knew would tarnish himself by talking about it.


Let's think about it from a Denver-fan's perspective: New coach comes in and I am excited. Reading a nice long interview with him about his new position and my team, the Nuggets; however 1/3 of the interview has nothing to do with the Nuggets, but the team the coach used to coach. It's lame and the Nuggets fans deserve better.

I have two thoughts on this.

Malone was responding to the questions asked. You don't like the questions, throw that at the interviewer, not at Mike's feet.

Karl has a long resume and is an established "fixture" in the league. Malone had one year as a head coach with a losing record, then turns it around in the second year and comes out blazing with DMC leading the defensive effort and taking on all comers with a winning record in a very difficult schedule before DMC gets sick. The coach is then inexplicably canned for no good reason. That's Mike's HC resume. What questions do you EXPECT an interviewer to ask given this? How is his relationship with a bunch of Denver players he hasn't likely met yet? Where is he going to live in Denver? What color tie will he wear his first game?

Sacramento is all he has as a HC resume, of course the ****storm of a situation will be discussed! And Mike handled it very professionally if you ask me.

 

[CuzistanKing]

I actually think Malone showed great amount of restraint in his interview. This is a guy that will NEVER air dirty laundry, because he (just like Cuz) is an "us vs. them" kind of guy - loyal, passionate, headstrong, always telling it like it is. Everything that he said was public knowledge and I think he actually did it for two reasons: 1) he still loves Cuz and wants him to succeed, thus this was a piece of advice of sorts to Karl on how not to screw up what he has; and b) this was a preemptive message to Denver FO (and a certain weasel still lurking there) - let me do my thing because I know what the hell I'm doing, or you'll end up like Sactown. But us Kings fans have been bombarded by the national media for the past months, so it's easy to circle the wagons and get defensive about anything and everything coming our way.

On a related topic, I still cannot for the life of me understand what's so "difficult" about coaching Cousins. He's such an open book, it's embarrassing that this franchise managed to screw up his formative years so badly. Nothing that Malone said should be of any surprise to anyone paying attention to Cousins. But I guess it's much easier to write him off as a hot headed proven loser than admit that it's you (meaning the FO) that keeps effing up.

 

[Ugolino]

November can't get here too soon, so tired of this soap opera.

 

[NoBonus]

November can't get here too soon, so tired of this soap opera.

Twice for me!

 

[lawlman91]

Mike Malone isn't perfect, which we all know. You prove that he isn't perfect by criticizing his answers to the media. Well done, I agree that he isn't perfect. But it's not worth it to over-analyze his talk, when we can be talking about how to move forward with or without Karl. I don't even get why we are analyzing the subtleties of this interview. Brick had a good guess as to why we are wasting our time analyzing his interview.

I still hold the opinion that we would be better off with Michael Malone as head coach than George Karl. Does that opinion mean I am living in the past, and that I can't move on? No!

 

[Padrino]

I still hold the opinion that we would be better off with Michael Malone as head coach than George Karl. Does that opinion mean I am living in the past, and that I can't move on? No!

indeed. this is a useful distinction to make.

 

[lawlman91]

indeed. this is a useful distinction to make.

I had to put that qualifier at the end because I knew it was coming

 

[IfAt1st]

Malone is not the enemy.
He's a good guy who got screwed over by shortsighted, tone-deaf weasels.

He's banished to a crap NBA team in Denver - there is no way in hell they are going to win 25 games next year.
Denver is not going to be a challenge to beat next year.

Have some compassion for the guy.

 

[Prince_XY]

This agrees with John Galts argument that Malone is now our competitor and he's using what he can to lift his team up and keep the Kings or any other team down.

I agree.

Malone is not "The Kings". He is a "nugget" now. Actually, it is true that he is not the enemy. But come on now you guys who are still for Malone. IMO, we felt rightfully offended that Vivek was attending the playoff games of the Warriors just because the Warriors are our competitors. We can rightfully feel the same with Malone, especially that he is no longer a "King" and is about to coach a different team.

Also, we got a better and a HOF-coach to be, although it remains to be seen if Karl can turn things around after he ****ed-up bigtime dealing with Cousins. I think someone is right. Suck it up, whatever it was that happened. Let us give more love on our own. Let us watch, hope for the best for the Kings (and not Malone), and see what happens this next season.

Go Kings!

 

[VF21]

Malone is not the enemy.
He's a good guy who got screwed over by shortsighted, tone-deaf weasels.

He's banished to a crap NBA team in Denver - there is no way in hell they are going to win 25 games next year.
Denver is not going to be a challenge to beat next year.

Have some compassion for the guy.

Banished? He chose to sign with them, and he's going to be making a nice bit of change. He doesn't need our compassion.