Woeful Kings depose Theus

REGGIE THEUSCompiled a 44-62 record

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Reggie Theus got barely more than 100 games to lead the Sacramento Kings before they headed in yet another direction with yet another new head coach.

Theus was fired by Sacramento yesterday after a 6-18 start to his second season with the club. Assistant Kenny Natt took over the last-place Kings and led them to a 118-103 victory over visiting Minnesota last night.

Natt, a first-time head coach who has the job on an interim basis, is the fourth coach in less than three years for the Kings, who are in disarray after a prolonged run as one of the NBA's elite clubs earlier in the decade.

Assistant Chuck Person was fired along with Theus, who went 44-62 in his brief tenure with Sacramento. The Kings had lost 10 of their last 11 to fall into the Pacific Division cellar, with only a win over the Los Angeles Lakers in the last 3 1/2 weeks. Sacramento's 24-point loss to the New York Knicks Saturday - the ninth loss in 10 games at Arco Arena - was Theus's final game.

"When you look at the overall level of performance that we've experienced this year, it's just not where we want to be," said Geoff Petrie, the Kings' top basketball executive. "Sometimes you just need to try a different voice if you want to try and change things."

Theus is the sixth coach fired this season, following P.J. Carlesimo (Oklahoma City), Eddie Jordan (Washington), Sam Mitchell (Toronto), Randy Wittman (Minnesota), and Maurice Cheeks (Philadelphia), who was dismissed Saturday.

Theus said he was grateful for the opportunity to run an NBA club early in his coaching career, claiming he wouldn't change anything about his short tenure.

"It was a great experience, and I just wish I could have seen it through," Theus told KHTK-AM, the Kings' flagship radio station. "For it to have been better, a lot of things would have had to have been different . . . I think we were entertaining. Good and bad, when people came to games, it was fun."