http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/13006087p-13852595c.html
Mark Kreidler: Petrie can see the job ahead
While realizing that things change, he says Rick Adelman is 'a terrific coach,' and the Kings still have 'the firepower.'
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, June 4, 2005
There are a few items about which Geoff Petrie sounds firm in his opinion. For one, the Kings - you know, the team that isn't playing in the conference finals this week - will go forward with a core built around Mike Bibby, Brad Miller and Peja Stojakovic.
For two, the Chris Webber trade was part of a purely transitional mode of operation and one that simply had to be made, because, for three, the old romantic Kings days are over, "and we've got to move on, see where we can go with this."
And Petrie will be there to see it. Because, for four - well, he'll be there.
"I'm going to finish my career in Sacramento," Petrie says, "whatever that turns out to be. I don't see myself going anywhere else. I think when I'm done here, I'll be done."
About the rest, not so much rings clear. Rick Adelman could be the coach of this team for a while, or he could be shoved out in a Phil Jackson power play.
Or, of course, Adelman could coach next season on a non-renewal basis and try to lame-duck his way through, which sounds like a recipe for crud stew.
Petrie repeatedly has stood behind Adelman, the winningest coach in Kings history, but he is far too experienced as a general manager in particular - and a basketball professional in general - to pretend naïveté about it. He knows the Maloof family contacted Jackson's agent, Todd Musburger, while Petrie was recovering from an angioplasty. He knows no one informed Adelman of it, in retrospect a fairly gaudy mistake.
And Petrie knows what every NBA pro knows, which is that coaches get whacked all the time, for reasons legitimate and ludicrous, with lots of justification or no justification at all. It's a brutally normal part of the business. In other news, life goes on.
If Rick Adelman gets thrown under the bus after a season in which his roster turned over so dramatically that he had only a handful of players left from last year's conference semifinalist, it will be one of the classic overreactions of NBA ownership. But with Phil Jackson - or at least the legend of Jackson - hovering in the thought clouds, let us not say that it's inconceivable.
"It's unfortunate that whatever went on there went on, but these guys (the Maloofs) have been terrific to work for and treated everybody around here very, very well," Petrie said. "But, look, at some point everybody here is going to fade to black ...
"Not specific to (Adelman), but when changes get made, that's when you talk about them. I've said this before about other situations, but the way I approach it is, they're our people until they're not our people. I've known Rick for 30 years. He's a terrific coach. What, I'm going to stop talking to him?"
In fact, Petrie and Adelman (who has been unavailable for interviews) have been speaking every day. Together with other members of the Kings' staff, they've worked out more than two dozen players already in advance of the June 28 draft, which Petrie describes as "the NBA's version of Pick Your Favorite Stock."
And Petrie and Adelman will be heading off to Las Vegas sometime in the next couple of weeks for the Kings' annual front-office summer meeting, which ought to be one hootin' and hollerin' good time. Unless something dramatic happens between now and then, the meeting will mark the first exchange between Adelman and his employers since the Jackson story broke.
Petrie missed most of that, and you could call it an excused absence. Heeding his body's warning signs, which included a weird and constricted feeling in his chest during his four-and five-mile daily treadmill runs, Petrie called team doctor Jeff Tanji the day after the playoffs ended and wound up undergoing the angioplasty that afternoon to clear severe blockage in one artery of his heart.
That, as it turned out, was the beginning of the misery. Petrie had an allergic reaction to one of his medications and spent the next several days on his back, his body in a rash, with nothing to do but wait to feel better.
"I was big-time into the Pill Society for a while there," he says.
Now, more than a month later, Petrie is back at work and exercising regularly - and terribly grateful. Were he not a runner, he might never have experienced the chest-cold type of feeling that led to the discovery of the blockage, and instead had it creeping silently along until a much more severe situation finally developed.
As it is, Petrie has basketball-related issues to deal with, beginning with his roster's crippling lack of defensive presence and rebounding. Cuttino Mobley and Darius Songaila also are likely to opt out of their contracts, leaving Bibby, Stojakovic and Miller to form the nucleus of a new competitor.
"They're all in their primes," Petrie says of his big three. "They've all been big contributors to winning teams. They're all skilled. They're a good core.
"There was a consensus that when we traded C-Webb, we would fall off the face of the earth. When Brad got injured, we were supposed to fall off the face of the earth. We were the second-highest scoring team in the league again, even with everything that happened. We've got the firepower. We've got to improve defensively."
That, once again - and for as long as he can see it - is Geoff Petrie's job. He oversaw the emergence of a legitimate contender in Sacramento. Now comes the most difficult act: the second one.
About the writer:
Reach Mark Kreidler at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/kreidler.
Mark Kreidler: Petrie can see the job ahead
While realizing that things change, he says Rick Adelman is 'a terrific coach,' and the Kings still have 'the firepower.'
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Saturday, June 4, 2005
There are a few items about which Geoff Petrie sounds firm in his opinion. For one, the Kings - you know, the team that isn't playing in the conference finals this week - will go forward with a core built around Mike Bibby, Brad Miller and Peja Stojakovic.
For two, the Chris Webber trade was part of a purely transitional mode of operation and one that simply had to be made, because, for three, the old romantic Kings days are over, "and we've got to move on, see where we can go with this."
And Petrie will be there to see it. Because, for four - well, he'll be there.
"I'm going to finish my career in Sacramento," Petrie says, "whatever that turns out to be. I don't see myself going anywhere else. I think when I'm done here, I'll be done."
About the rest, not so much rings clear. Rick Adelman could be the coach of this team for a while, or he could be shoved out in a Phil Jackson power play.
Or, of course, Adelman could coach next season on a non-renewal basis and try to lame-duck his way through, which sounds like a recipe for crud stew.
Petrie repeatedly has stood behind Adelman, the winningest coach in Kings history, but he is far too experienced as a general manager in particular - and a basketball professional in general - to pretend naïveté about it. He knows the Maloof family contacted Jackson's agent, Todd Musburger, while Petrie was recovering from an angioplasty. He knows no one informed Adelman of it, in retrospect a fairly gaudy mistake.
And Petrie knows what every NBA pro knows, which is that coaches get whacked all the time, for reasons legitimate and ludicrous, with lots of justification or no justification at all. It's a brutally normal part of the business. In other news, life goes on.
If Rick Adelman gets thrown under the bus after a season in which his roster turned over so dramatically that he had only a handful of players left from last year's conference semifinalist, it will be one of the classic overreactions of NBA ownership. But with Phil Jackson - or at least the legend of Jackson - hovering in the thought clouds, let us not say that it's inconceivable.
"It's unfortunate that whatever went on there went on, but these guys (the Maloofs) have been terrific to work for and treated everybody around here very, very well," Petrie said. "But, look, at some point everybody here is going to fade to black ...
"Not specific to (Adelman), but when changes get made, that's when you talk about them. I've said this before about other situations, but the way I approach it is, they're our people until they're not our people. I've known Rick for 30 years. He's a terrific coach. What, I'm going to stop talking to him?"
In fact, Petrie and Adelman (who has been unavailable for interviews) have been speaking every day. Together with other members of the Kings' staff, they've worked out more than two dozen players already in advance of the June 28 draft, which Petrie describes as "the NBA's version of Pick Your Favorite Stock."
And Petrie and Adelman will be heading off to Las Vegas sometime in the next couple of weeks for the Kings' annual front-office summer meeting, which ought to be one hootin' and hollerin' good time. Unless something dramatic happens between now and then, the meeting will mark the first exchange between Adelman and his employers since the Jackson story broke.
Petrie missed most of that, and you could call it an excused absence. Heeding his body's warning signs, which included a weird and constricted feeling in his chest during his four-and five-mile daily treadmill runs, Petrie called team doctor Jeff Tanji the day after the playoffs ended and wound up undergoing the angioplasty that afternoon to clear severe blockage in one artery of his heart.
That, as it turned out, was the beginning of the misery. Petrie had an allergic reaction to one of his medications and spent the next several days on his back, his body in a rash, with nothing to do but wait to feel better.
"I was big-time into the Pill Society for a while there," he says.
Now, more than a month later, Petrie is back at work and exercising regularly - and terribly grateful. Were he not a runner, he might never have experienced the chest-cold type of feeling that led to the discovery of the blockage, and instead had it creeping silently along until a much more severe situation finally developed.
As it is, Petrie has basketball-related issues to deal with, beginning with his roster's crippling lack of defensive presence and rebounding. Cuttino Mobley and Darius Songaila also are likely to opt out of their contracts, leaving Bibby, Stojakovic and Miller to form the nucleus of a new competitor.
"They're all in their primes," Petrie says of his big three. "They've all been big contributors to winning teams. They're all skilled. They're a good core.
"There was a consensus that when we traded C-Webb, we would fall off the face of the earth. When Brad got injured, we were supposed to fall off the face of the earth. We were the second-highest scoring team in the league again, even with everything that happened. We've got the firepower. We've got to improve defensively."
That, once again - and for as long as he can see it - is Geoff Petrie's job. He oversaw the emergence of a legitimate contender in Sacramento. Now comes the most difficult act: the second one.
About the writer:
Reach Mark Kreidler at (916) 321-1149 or mkreidler@sacbee.com. Back columns: www.sacbee.com/kreidler.
