Everyone thought it was over.
But it looks like more and more information surrounding Paul Westphal's exit as coach of the Sacramento Kings and his handling of second-year forward DeMarcus Cousins continues to surface.
Sam Amick of SI.com wrote a story detailing how Kings co-owner Joe Maloof did not know anything about Westphal's statement that claimed Cousins demanded a trade from the team. Maloof says he did not approve of such a statement being released.
"I didn't know about any letter," Maloof said. "We didn't know about any of that. ...We didn't know about the statement or anything like that."
"Well, we've owned the team 13 years and it's our belief that you keep basketball situations in house and not make them public. That did upset me. ... It's always been our history to keep things in the organization and not to make it public. As far as I was concerned, [Cousins] would sit the bench one night and that's all there was to it."
Maloof said that Cousins sitting for one game was considered a basketball decision and nothing more. Nevertheless, Westphal is gone and Keith Smart is now in line to follow Eric Musselman, Reggie Theus, Kenny Natt and Westphal in trying to right a ship that was driven by Rick Adelman during the Kings early 2000s heyday.
The Kings are now 3-6 and 12th in the Western Conference.