Sacramento is still the closest thing the league has to basketball hell. On the other hand, some jokes are funny because they’re true. (Those fears turned out to be absolutely correct.) Interim head coach Tyrone Corbin wanted the full-time job, and plenty of analysts couldn’t understand why the Kings turned to Karl given his history of not getting along with temperamental stars like Cousins. Head coach Michael Malone was fired in mid-December for no good reason - Sacramento was in the midst of a losing streak brought on by the prolonged absence of DeMarcus Cousins but looked much improved in general. It’s possible that Gay was just making light of the fact that the 2014-15 Kings were something of a disaster. Gay then pulled up his hood and yelled “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.” (An aside on Gay: He’s quoted in an advance copy of George Karl’s forthcoming book “Furious George,” due to be published in January by HarperCollins, as telling Karl when he met the new Sacramento coach for the first time in February 2015, “Welcome to basketball hell.”)
