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//  Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Kings Hire Westphal

Friday, June 12, 2009
Posted by Denise Jimenez

The Sacramento Kings hired Paul Westphal as their head coach. The candidates for the position also included Lakers assistant coach Kurt Rambis. However, after Rambis passed on the job saying repeatedly that he was determined to delay any decision about his future until after the Finals with the Kings, Sacramento moved on and agreed with Westphal on a two-year deal with a team option for a third season.

Geoff Petrie, the Kings president, explained the process for the selection as that the candidates were informed of the salary structure either during their interviews or soon after and had to agree to accept that structure as a pre-qualifying type of commitment before they would be offered the job. Petrie stated that no one was officially offered the job other than Westphal.  

"The job could not have been offered to somebody who had not said that that structure was acceptable. So the only person who was offered this job was Paul Westphal. That's the bottom line," said Petrie. 

The agreement was first reported Tuesday night by the Sacramento Bee and then on the team's website by Petrie and Westphal. Westphal has a career record of 267-159 in previous coaching stops in Phoenix and Seattle. Sources say he will earn $1.5 million for each of the next two seasons with the Kings and they will pay him $2 million if they retain him through 2011-12.

"I have been looking for a good opportunity to get back and do what I like to do and I think that the Kings present an exciting challenge for me," Westphal told the Bee. "I'm really happy I got the job and whatever winding turns it had to take -- I don't even know all the winding turns that it took -- I'm just happy that they decided I'm the guy for them and I can't wait to get started."

Westphal reportedly made it clear early in the process that he was indifferent by the Kings' salary parameters because he has a lot of enthusiasm to return to head coaching. Westphal hasn't been a head coach in the NBA since coaching the Seattle Super Sonics in the 2000-01 season but served as the lead assistant to Avery in Dallas in the 2007-08 season. Westphal served this season as the Mavericks' executive vice president and is looking forward to his new coaching job.

Comments (1) - Post a Comment
Really interesting dam Laker are finaly champion i still cant belived, nice sport line keep it up is beutiful piece of work.
cristopher at 11:39pm EDT - June 16, 2009


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