Bill Russell coached the Sacramento Kings, and it was certainly an odd marriage. It was kind of like the irresistible force meeting the immovable object. On one side was Russell, an all-time winner. And then there was basketball’s sad-sack franchise on the other side. He would soon find out inertia always wins.
Bill Russell coached the Sacramento Kings for a grand total of 58 games in the 1987-88 NBA season. Despite signing a seven-year contract stating he work two years as coach before becoming general manager and eventually president, he wasn’t able to make it past the first 82 games. In March 1988, the former MVP decided enough was enough. His record on the bench was 17-41.
The Kings and Russell tried to salvage the marriage despite countless red flags. Sacramento mascot Jerry Reynolds was hired as head coach while the 11-time NBA champion took on a front office role as stipulated in the contract. However, he would eventually succumb to the team’s crapiness in 1989 and left the franchise for good.
Apparently, Russell’s disdain for the roster was not a particularly well-kept secret. He even demanded that Sacramento’s first round pick in the 1987 draft, Kenny Smith, sit next to him at all times. According to the TNT broadcaster, that’s because Russell felt the other players were losers who would hold Smith back.
Russell also told Smith he was trying to trade everyone on the roster, but no one would take them. Once he stepped aside from coaching, he managed to ship out eight of those losers and a draft pick in a little over a year.
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Bill Russell coached the Sacramento Kings, but he should have known better
What was Bill Russell expecting from the Kings? He should have known better then to accept a job from a franchise playing in a warehouse (Arco Arena 1) that had rehired a guy who traded Oscar Robertson and Nate Archibald for literally nothing. Seriously, Joe Axelson was perhaps the worst NBA executive in history. But that is a story for another time.
You also have to wonder if Russell even bothered to look at Sacramento’s roster before taking the job. He was running them down as losers to Smith, but he is the one who agreed to coach them in the first place. A quick glance would have told him to steer clear of this lot.
Joe Kleine and Otis Thorpe played 82 games each during the 1987-88 NBA season. Reggie Theus was on the downside of his career. Minutes eaters like Harold Pressley, Mike McGee and Terry Tyler were out of the league shortly after that season. This was a truly awful collection of players with no real path to contention.
Bill Russell won a lot of games during his time in the NBA, but even he was no match for the inertia of the Kings which saw them anchored to basketball’s cellar. A position they find themselves more than 30 years later. R.I.P. Bill and you were right, Joe Kleine was a loser.
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