The Sacramento Kings have officially announced their coaching staff for the upcoming season, per a press release from the Kings. As reported yesterday, Nancy Lieberman will be a part of the Kings’ staff, joining new hires Chad Iske, John Welch and Anthony Carter as the new coaches on George Karl’s staff.
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Iske will be the associate head coach and the other three new hires will be assistant coaches, per the press release.
Lieberman, Iske, Welch and Carter join Vance Walberg and Corliss Williamson, who are the only two assistants left from last season on Karl’s staff. All of the new coaches have some experience coaching previously, and two of them have worked directly under Karl before.
Both Iske and Welch have worked under Karl with the Denver Nuggets–Iske spend six years on Karl’s staff while Welch spend eight years in Denver with Sacramento’s head coach. Clearly Vlade Divac is trying to work with and not against Karl to create a winning team in Sacramento at long last.
Carter has the least coaching experience of the bunch. He spent two seasons coaching the San Antonio Spurs’ D-League team, following his 14 year NBA career. He played for six different teams, although the Kings were not one of them. Any experience working within the Spurs organization should be valued, however. And unproven does not always mean poor, as we’ve seen firsthand with Divac’s time running the Kings.
Lieberman has been covered a bunch by a lot of great Kings writers, including Akis Yerocostas right here. She has plenty of experience, having coached the Texas Legends (the Dallas Mavericks’ D-League team) to a playoff appearance in 2011 and subsequently being promoted to assistant general manager of the Legends.
She’s also a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Here’s your monthly reminder that there is no NBA Hall of Fame, just one for basketball in general, meaning Lieberman is in the same elite class with former NBA players and coaches.
Can we please not talk more on twitter about how she’s under-qualified for this? I’ve seen it happen, and I really don’t get it. Where’s the outrage over Anthony Carter getting a spot despite less coaching experience? Resisting female coaching in the NBA is futile, as I’m sure before we see 2017 Becky Hammon will be running an NBA team.
I’m glad to see women getting coaching positions both in the NBA and NFL, and hope the trend continues. The best candidate should get the job, regardless of gender, race, religion or any other stupid things people discriminate against.
That’s not to say Carter is actually underqualified, by the way. It’s an assistant coaching position. If you know things about basketball, you’re probably qualified. In the same way Divac signed Seth Curry, Duje Dukan and David Stockton based on their potential, he’s also signed Carter based on his.
Overall I’m happy with the coaching hires–some of them will pacify Karl and show unity among the Kings’ brass while some lesser-experienced coaches will also get a shot to prove themselves in Sacramento. This is a solid group of hires, through and through.
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