More on John Whisenant and the Power Struggle

by Tom Ziller on Apr 11, 2009 12:22 PM PDT in Commentary

Sam Amick got back into the saddle this week, and on Friday morning offered up this nugget on the prospective coaching search:

The signs are mixed as to whether Petrie or the Maloofs will have the most influence on a potential coaching search this summer, but it says something that I can be told definitively one week that John Whisenant would be a serious candidate and then hear the next week that he is more of a safety valve choice. Difficult waters to navigate, to be sure.

Amick had two anonymous sources talking up Whisenant only a week ago. The reports from Adrian Wojnarowski (which Amick doesn't refute, and in fact credits in philosophical terms) would indicate to me that Petrie is not in fact on board with Whisenant.

It makes you wonder who outside of the Maloof fam is in favor of Whiz within the organization. Guessing Amick's sources isn't a game I'll play, but you'd think it would need to be someone close enough Petrie (or Petrie's office) to matter, but removed enough from Petrie to not realize Petrie does not in fact endorse Whiz.

I guarantee the sources now rejecting Whiz (by way of calling Eddie Jordan a done deal) come from the Petrie end of the owner-management spectrum Amick and Woj tell of.

Compromises haven't worked before, but you wonder if Whiz might be added to the staff as a defensive version of Pete Carril if Petrie gets his way with regard to the head coach. (You also have to wonder if Petrie will suffer another Maloof hire if push comes to shove. But that's a bit distressing, so forget I ever said that.)

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I love a good Whiz as much as anyone

But I prefer the idea of a defensive Whiz, if he is to join the staff of some yet to be determined coach. I know Whiz can coach, but in my eyes, any coach favored by the Maloofs and not GP is suspect.

They’re good at casinos, not so great at coaches.

Rocks are free, and slingshots easily stolen.

by andy sims on Apr 11, 2009 1:34 PM PDT reply actions

and if Whiz is hired, you can add PR as another thing the Maloofs don't do well.

nevermind, the Maloofs don’t need to hire Whiz to be bad at PR.

I would consider the Maloofs hiring Whiz as the exit of GP (and if not, I would no longer be in the “in GP I trust” camp ever again) and the exit of many of us Kings fans. If the effort to “put a good product on the floor” involves the Maloofs making the basketball decisions when they have Geoff Petrie in place, that is an insult to my fandom than I cannot withstand.

by betweentheeyes on Apr 11, 2009 1:44 PM PDT up reply actions

Brilliant PR Move

If they want to drop attendance to zero and move the team. I’d hope Geoff has the integrity to resign the second Whiz signs the contract.

by bignerd on Apr 12, 2009 8:37 PM PDT up reply actions

This nugget does scare me

(You also have to wonder if Petrie will suffer another Maloof hire if push comes to shove. But that’s a bit distressing, so forget I ever said that.)

The longer they keep at it, the Maloof’s aren’t exactly pushing the button for good ownership. They’re making every panic move that every bad ownership does (ego or money usually—ego believing their ownership can do better than the owners before them—and money because they have less of it now), and unfortunately, the end in sight that needs to change things doesn’t seem imminent. Too murky to say, but, until this team is out of the woods with this (and it may never be), then I suspect there’s going to be a problem.

Evil Cowtown Inc: Screwin' Suckaz over since Nineteen Eighty-Five.....

No mistakes in the tango, darling. Not like life. Simple. That's what makes the tango so great. If you make a mistake, and get all tangled up, you just tango on.....

by pookeyguru on Apr 11, 2009 2:22 PM PDT reply actions