It was February 2016 and Vlade Divac was still in his infancy as an NBA executive and facing a tough decision.



He’d been on the job less than a year, and all signs pointed to firing head coach George Karl with the team two games out of the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.



Players were grumbling louder and louder. Making a change to an assistant, such as Corliss Williamson, might have been enough to galvanize the roster for a postseason push.



Karl wasn’t fired, the players became further disenchanted and that season became yet another in what is now 13 consecutive losing seasons. It’s a decision Divac would regret.



This time, Divac is trusting himself. Thursday morning, he fired Dave Joerger, the coach who led the Kings to their best season in 13 years.



“I started thinking about it after the All-Star break, but it was more like the whole year,” Divac said at a news conference Thursday. “Where...