Kings head coach Doug Christie went scorched earth on his team following a blowout loss Wednesday.
Christie, in his first full season in Sacramento after taking over as interim head coach last year, slammed his players for their “shameful compete level” during a 133-100 loss to the Hawks.
“You’re professionals,” Christie said during his postgame press conference. “You signed up for this. This league is hard. With that being said, this is only game 12. There’s a lot of basketball to be played. You’ve demonstrated that you can do this.”
Sacramento shot a rough 39.1 percent from the field as a team on Wednesday, struggling to get anything going on offense against the Hawks, who were without Trae Young, as he is out with an MCL sprain.
Christie continued by saying that his team is going to have to play their way out of their four-game losing streak, in which they have played the Thunder, Timberwolves and Nuggets, all Western Conference playoff teams last season.
“But ain’t nobody checking for that. You’re going to have to play your way out of it. Period. If you’ve ever been to any gym, rec, hood, anywhere, get ran off the court and see if you get some respect. I’ve been to all of them.
“And I’ve taken butt-whoopings. That’s part of it. But you know what I do do? I’mma comeback. Nah. That ain’t it. You are not going to represent the Sacramento Kings [like that]. Not while I’m here. You know how that goes. I’m a realist. It’s part of our business. But nah. Put on a jersey, represent it properly.”
Christie, who spent five seasons with the Kings during his playing career, concluded his rant by bringing up the fans, saying that they were likely “f–king embarrassed” with the team’s performance.
“These people need to come into the turnstiles and they need to be proud of the product when they leave here that they see, not f–king embarrassed. Unacceptable. Period. It is. This a simple one.
“This ain’t even hard… I don’t need to look at no tape. Probably won’t look at it. I’ve seen it once live. Damn if you want to look at it again. But I will.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
