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Reports: Karl to take over as Kings’ coach
Jeff Hawkins is an award-winning sportswriter with more than four decades in the industry (print and digital media). A freelance writer/stay-at-home dad since 2008, Hawkins started his career with newspaper stints in Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Upstate New York and Illinois, where he earned the 2004 APSE first-place award for column writing (under 40,000 circulation). As a beat writer, he covered NASCAR Winston Cup events at NHIS (1999-2003), the NHL's Chicago Blackhawks (2003-06) and the NFL's Carolina Panthers (2011-12). Hawkins penned four youth sports books, including a Michael Jordan biography. Hawkins' main hobbies include mountain bike riding, 5k trail runs at the Whitewater Center in Charlotte, N.C., and live music.
All posts by Jeff HawkinsUpdated15 Oct 2021
George Karl is on the verge of becoming the Sacramento Kings’ coach, multiple media outlets reported Tuesday.
According to Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, the Kings and Karl were hammering out a four-year deal that would pay between $4-$5 million per season.
ESPN.com and other media outlets reported that Karl will take over the team following the All-Star break, which runs from Thursday through Feb. 19. The Kings play Tuesday night at Chicago and Wednesday at Milwaukee, then are off until a Feb. 20 home game against the Boston Celtics.
Part of the delay in hiring Karl reportedly was that Kings management wanted to be sure the team’s star player, center DeMarcus Cousins, was OK with the move.
Karl, 63, has 25 seasons of NBA coaching experience. He led the Denver Nuggets to a 57-25 mark in 2012-13, his last season on the bench, and was selected the Coach of the Year.
Karl owns a career 1,131-756 regular-season record (.599 winning percentage) and an 80-105 postseason record (.432). He guided the Seattle SuperSonics to the Western Conference championship.
His other coaching stints were with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Golden State Warriors and the Milwaukee Bucks.
The Kings have two wins in their past 13 games under coach Tyrone Corbin, who took over Dec. 15 after the team fired Michael Malone. Sacramento has a 7-19 mark with Corbin in charge after going 11-13 with Malone in charge.
In late December, the Kings took the “interim” tag off Corbin’s title and announced that he would remain through the end of the season.
