Sam Amick

USA TODAY Sports

SACRAMENTO – You can’t make up this stuff.

It’s comical, really, unless you’re one of the many poor souls in the Sacramento Kings organization who does good, honest work and has it overshadowed by the epic dysfunction at the top.

Days after the Kings nearly changed coaches for the ninth time in nine years, they faced a Denver Nuggets team coached by Michael Malone, whose firing 14 months ago sparked the latest round of reckless team management.

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Before we continue, a round of applause for the basketball Gods. Talk about looking your past in the face. And as if this one game wasn’t enough, it’s Kings vs. Nuggets again on Tuesday, this time in Denver.

Now it doesn’t matter that the Kings won the first matchup, as their underwhelming record (23-31) is a ripple effect of the problems that plague them. Nor is this to say it’s a sure thing Malone would have ended their decade-long postseason drought had he been retained.

But the takeaway, one that was true then and remains true, is that the coach is clearly not the problem. Kings majority owner Vivek Ranadive, who runs a fear-ridden fiefdom and guards so effectively against those who dare to combat him, most certainly is.

Only time will tell if change will come on that front. Chances are it will not.

Despite the continued frustration of the team’s minority owners about the way Ranadive has run the franchise since taking over three summers ago, the rules of NBA ownership make it nearly impossible to stage the kind of coup they hope eventually happens. Yet after the George Karl saga that left egg on their collective face yet again — with the firing not taking place, in part, because it might have required the kind of capital (approximately $10 million) that they would have to approve — their blood is boiling in ways that won’t go away anytime soon.

Rather than let the drama die down, the Kings entered the post-All-Star break by firing up the Bad Headline Machine again. To be more specific, Kings vice president of basketball operations Vlade Divac fired an assistant coach in Vance Walberg who had longtime ties to Karl. According to two people with knowledge of the situation, concerns about Walberg’s relationships with the players was a major concern that had everything to do with the move. What’s more, friction with fellow assistant coach Nancy Lieberman made matters only worse. The people spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the matter. Karl was incensed by the move, which surely matters little to his Kings bosses, who have unofficially decided he won’t be around next season.

All of which should make Malone feel better about not being in Sacramento.

In Denver, where he’s under the same umbrella as the man who played a big part in his firing (former Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro) and partners with Nuggets team executives Tim Connelly and Josh Kroenke, there’s a more-healthy dynamic that has allowed him to move onward and upward in the coaching ranks. Yet Malone, who was hired by the Kings before D’Alessandro in May 2013 and fired after an 11-13 start last season that came with big man DeMarcus Cousins missing nine games because of viral meningitis, still wonders what might have been.

“It never needed to happen,” Malone told USA TODAY Sports. “We were headed in the right direction, and you always wonder, ‘What if?’ Such is life in the NBA.

“There’s a part of you that feels awful for them because of the (Kings) people you care about. You want to see them have success. The one thing that drives DeMarcus is he wants to win. He wants to be in the playoffs. He’s a competitor, as are all the other guys. And then whether it’s firing an assistant coach or just all the drama that goes around it, you feel awful. And that’s when you wonder, ‘Well, none of this had to happen. In that alternate universe, you wonder, ‘What if?’ ‘What if I was still the coach here?’”

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At minimum, you’d like to think Malone eventually gained clarity as to why he wasn’t given the chance to see things through in Sacramento. Alas, that’s not the case.

“Honestly, no,” he said when asked if he understands precisely why he was let go. “I’ve heard so many different takes on who fired me. Was it the owner? Was it the front office? Was it the (former) adviser to the president (Chris Mullin)? I don’t know. It’s kind of like the JFK assassination — everybody has their own theory. All I know is that I’m no longer the head coach of the Kings, I’m the head coach of the Nuggets. And I’m thrilled to be in Denver. I’ll always look back upon my time here really with fond memories.”

Even with the bitter way in which it all came to an end, Malone remains thankful for the Kings opportunity that led to the Nuggets job. Still, there clearly has been no mending of the fences between him and his former boss.

“There’s no dynamic (with him and Ranadive),” Malone said. “Again, thankful for the opportunity he gave me. The night I got fired, that Sunday night, Dec. 14, it was Pete D’Alessandro who fired me, and I never saw Vivek and I never heard from Vivek. We never spoke.

“It doesn’t bother me. If you get fired, you’re fired. It doesn’t matter who fired you, right? He hired me. Pete fired me. And whether it was Pete’s call or Vivek’s call, who knows? Vivek reached out to me this morning, sent me a text to say, ‘Welcome back to Sac.’ But we haven’t maintained any type of relationship.”

Did he respond?

“No, I didn’t have time to,” he said with a wry smile. “It’s a crazy business, and Vivek has his own things he’s got to worry about with his team.”

Does he ever.