CBS13 Web Exclusive: Sacramento Kings Owner Says Hiring Coach Before GM 'A Mistake'
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — CBS13's Steve Large spoke with Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive at an event on Tuesday after the team formally introduced the team's third head coach of the season. Ranadive wasn't at the press conference introducing future Hall of Fame coach George Karl.
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STEVE LARGE: You wanted to come here today. You weren't at the press conference, but you wanted to be here. Why this scene? What did you want to be a part of this?
VIVEK RANADIVE: Well this is what makes the Kings who they are. It's the fans. It's all about the fans. I said when I bought the team that this is your team and it's here to stay. It's a pleasure and an honor to be here with all the fans.
LARGE: When I talked to you the day that Ty Corbin was named head coach, you talked about changes in philosophy and you were certain that was the right decision to make. Are you still certain that that was the right decision to make, or are you willing, like [General Manager] Pete D'Allesandro did and say that you made the wrong decision?
RANADIVE: I have always deferred to my front office. You surround yourself with people smarter than you, and then you let them make the calls. And there's calls I've wanted to make as a fan. I loved [former King, now Phoenix Suns point guard] Isaiah [Thomas], and the front office said, "No, we're better off with a different person at that position." And of course they were right. I was a huge fan of George Karl. I met with him a few months ago and I was blown away by his vision of the game, and so I'm pleased that he's here now. I would have liked to have seen him here even sooner. But again at the end of the day, I just support what the front office does. I made a mistake when I bought the team. I hired the coach before I hired the GM. Circumstances were different, we had a few weeks before the draft, and so on. So that's what we did. This time around I said, look, I'm not going to interfere, I'm going to let the GM decide whether it's Ty or it's George or whoever it is. I make new mistakes; I won't make the same mistake again.
LARGE: It's been publicized, and you've talked about it even on 60 Minutes and CNBC, your coaching of your daughter's team. You've brought some of those out-of-the-box ideas to the Kings organization. How comfortable will be going to a future Hall of Fame coach, asking him to consider some of your thoughts?
RANADIVE: I never actually asked Coach Malone or Coach Ty to consider anything. I know a lot of people talk about the 5-on-4 and so on. So that was not something that I ever proposed to anyone. But when we talked within the front office, we always bounce ideas off. I ask annoying questions, but the coach does his own thing always. So my job is just to brainstorm and come up with ideas, but we'll never tell the coach what to do. Especially when you have a master like George Karl—but the same was true for Malone. I never actually called Malone and said, "Hey would you do this?" "Would you do that?" or "Would you play that player?" That's not how we operate. The coach is the director of the symphony, and he's conducting it and he does what he wants, and that's how it should be.
LARGE: Those were published reports, so you're refuting those published reports that you were giving advice to Malone.
RANADIVE: No, no, no, no. I've never played basketball in my life. I would never do that. I've never ever actually asked him to play—there's only one instance where I actually asked him if he would play somebody, and that was when one of our players, his father had died that day and he still was going to show up for the game. So I gently suggested that if the young man put on his jersey and came to the game, then we owed it to him to put him in the game at least for a few minutes. He was playing in honor of his father. So in all of the time that we spent together, that was the only time that I actually made a suggestion. And in that situation, again, it was through the GM, and the GM said the coach was planning on doing that anyway. So, no, so those reports—if you believe everything you read I would urge you not to. I have never made any suggestions to the coach in terms of who to play, how to play, what to play. That's all up to the coach.
