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http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/14223878p-15048768c.html
Marcos Bretón: For long-term journey, Kings have right man at wheel
B]By Marcos Bretón -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, March 1, 2006[/B]
Today the Kings begin a five-game road trip that could make or break a fractured season of frustration and inconsistency. After all, the revived Kings with Ron Artest still are 1-6 on the road since he joined them for a loss at Boston on Jan. 27. And they are 7-19 in road games overall.
Should that trend continue this week, setting the stage for early vacations at Arco Arena, then what?
Let the coach walk when the season is over? No way.
Rick Adelman deserves to come back next season.
He is better than anyone the Kings could replace him with. And he has done an admirable job of wedging a disparate jumble of square pegs into round holes, of making sense of a unit that seemed nonsensical.
In fact, let's say it straight: Rick Adelman was, in many ways, set up to fail this season.
He was handed a team tabbed a division contender when, in reality, the Kings were as stable as a three-legged chair. The three legs being: Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic and Brad Miller - men loaded with potential but unable to realize it together.
Then there was a 10-year veteran in Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who never had won or reached the playoffs. There was Bonzi Wells, who was trying to revive his career. And all others of note were kids learning on the fly.
What was the brain trust at Arco Arena thinking?
What were the rest of us thinking?
That's just it: There was no thinking, only a search for scapegoats in a business in which blame runs downhill.
So it became easy to slime Adelman, though he didn't make the trades, set the roster, overinflate expectations or take the floor himself to miss all those open looks and defensive assignments.
You want to blame Adelman because Stojakovic - consciously or subconsciously - tanked it while he was here? You want to blame him because Miller and Bibby seemingly needed Artest's strong presence to elevate their games?
You want to blame Adelman because the Kings haven't won a championship, though Kings president Geoff Petrie hasn't won one, either? You want to blame Adelman because the Kings missed 14 free throws in Game 7 of the 2002 Western Conference finals against the Los Angeles Lakers?
You want to blame him because the Kings' title window closed long ago, though few wanted to admit it - or utter the dreaded words "rebuilding year?"
Go ahead. But who are you going to get who is better than Adelman?
Before answering that, have you noticed how Larry Brown hasn't looked like much of a "genius" without an elite team under his watch? Or how Phil Jackson hasn't looked like one without multiple Hall of Famers doing his bidding?
Meanwhile, have you noticed how Adelman has helped shape something in Sacramento that all teams yearn for?
Hope for the future.
Yes. The miserable Kings team of December now shows bona fide promise with Artest, with Bibby and Miller in their primes and with two fantastic young talents in Kevin Martin and Francisco García.
Some whine that these men lack the stage presence of Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, Doug Christie and Bobby Jackson. But you know what? That special unit - men who are gone though Kings fans still clutch their jerseys - took several years of growth and failure to flower.
Kings Nation accepted that but now expects winning is as easy as Adelman whispering "be talented" to a still-inconsistent team of quiet dudes.
OK. Does the man himself think he deserves to come back?
"Yes, I do," Adelman said. "We've made a ton of changes this year, and I tried to adjust to them. ... You've got a real positive base here, and that's what I want to be a part of. We've got a chance, and even if we don't quite get there this year, things have turned."
Said Petrie: "Rick is a terrific coach, a proven winner. ... We're all on the same page, working to get this team to finish the best we can."
The best way to do that? Keep the guy who kept his head and kept a mediocre team in it this far.
This is, IMHO, the fairest article I've seen about Adelman.
Marcos Bretón: For long-term journey, Kings have right man at wheel
B]By Marcos Bretón -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Wednesday, March 1, 2006[/B]
Today the Kings begin a five-game road trip that could make or break a fractured season of frustration and inconsistency. After all, the revived Kings with Ron Artest still are 1-6 on the road since he joined them for a loss at Boston on Jan. 27. And they are 7-19 in road games overall.
Should that trend continue this week, setting the stage for early vacations at Arco Arena, then what?
Let the coach walk when the season is over? No way.
Rick Adelman deserves to come back next season.
He is better than anyone the Kings could replace him with. And he has done an admirable job of wedging a disparate jumble of square pegs into round holes, of making sense of a unit that seemed nonsensical.
In fact, let's say it straight: Rick Adelman was, in many ways, set up to fail this season.
He was handed a team tabbed a division contender when, in reality, the Kings were as stable as a three-legged chair. The three legs being: Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic and Brad Miller - men loaded with potential but unable to realize it together.
Then there was a 10-year veteran in Shareef Abdur-Rahim, who never had won or reached the playoffs. There was Bonzi Wells, who was trying to revive his career. And all others of note were kids learning on the fly.
What was the brain trust at Arco Arena thinking?
What were the rest of us thinking?
That's just it: There was no thinking, only a search for scapegoats in a business in which blame runs downhill.
So it became easy to slime Adelman, though he didn't make the trades, set the roster, overinflate expectations or take the floor himself to miss all those open looks and defensive assignments.
You want to blame Adelman because Stojakovic - consciously or subconsciously - tanked it while he was here? You want to blame him because Miller and Bibby seemingly needed Artest's strong presence to elevate their games?
You want to blame Adelman because the Kings haven't won a championship, though Kings president Geoff Petrie hasn't won one, either? You want to blame Adelman because the Kings missed 14 free throws in Game 7 of the 2002 Western Conference finals against the Los Angeles Lakers?
You want to blame him because the Kings' title window closed long ago, though few wanted to admit it - or utter the dreaded words "rebuilding year?"
Go ahead. But who are you going to get who is better than Adelman?
Before answering that, have you noticed how Larry Brown hasn't looked like much of a "genius" without an elite team under his watch? Or how Phil Jackson hasn't looked like one without multiple Hall of Famers doing his bidding?
Meanwhile, have you noticed how Adelman has helped shape something in Sacramento that all teams yearn for?
Hope for the future.
Yes. The miserable Kings team of December now shows bona fide promise with Artest, with Bibby and Miller in their primes and with two fantastic young talents in Kevin Martin and Francisco García.
Some whine that these men lack the stage presence of Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, Doug Christie and Bobby Jackson. But you know what? That special unit - men who are gone though Kings fans still clutch their jerseys - took several years of growth and failure to flower.
Kings Nation accepted that but now expects winning is as easy as Adelman whispering "be talented" to a still-inconsistent team of quiet dudes.
OK. Does the man himself think he deserves to come back?
"Yes, I do," Adelman said. "We've made a ton of changes this year, and I tried to adjust to them. ... You've got a real positive base here, and that's what I want to be a part of. We've got a chance, and even if we don't quite get there this year, things have turned."
Said Petrie: "Rick is a terrific coach, a proven winner. ... We're all on the same page, working to get this team to finish the best we can."
The best way to do that? Keep the guy who kept his head and kept a mediocre team in it this far.
This is, IMHO, the fairest article I've seen about Adelman.
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