Maloofs paying for bad decisions

Reggie Theus' firing Monday as coach of the Sacramento Kings was not surprising.

The Kings had lost 10 of their last 11 games, including a 114-90 home loss to the New York Knicks on Saturday, and were in last place in the Pacific Division.

But don't weep for Theus, a former UNLV star who went 44-62 in one-plus seasons in Sacramento and was the sixth NBA coach to be fired this season. He will get paid for the next two years by Joe and Gavin Maloof, the Kings' owners who hired Theus despite the fact he never had coached in the NBA.

The Maloofs' impatience to win will cost them, because they will be paying three head coaches for the rest of this season. Along with Theus and interim coach Kenny Natt, the Maloofs still are paying former coach Eric Musselman. Natt becomes the Kings' fourth coach in three years. Rick Adelman, now coach of the Houston Rockets, was fired after the 2006 season and replaced by Musselman.

• ADIOS, AFL -- The Arena Football League's decision to suspend operations for 2009 brings to mind the many franchises that have come and gone in the league's 22 years.

Perhaps you remember the Detroit Drive? Or maybe the New Orleans Night? Or the Fort Worth Cavalry? And how about the Minnesota Fighting Pike?

Give the AFL this: It might not have won over dyed-in-the-wool football fans with its hybrid rules, but it had some creative team nicknames. How could anyone not like the Nashville Kats, the Miami Hooters and the Denver Dynamite?

The AFL has a somewhat ignominious historical fact. In each of its 22 seasons, at least one team didn't play under the same name from the year before.

In Philadelphia, where the Soul was the defending AFL champion, season tickets were being peddled as late as Sunday night. An electronic billboard near the Wachovia Center, where the team plays, was encouraging fans to buy seats.

Perhaps the message was changed Monday to peddle 76ers tickets.

• AF2 OK -- While the AFL is on ice, it's business as usual for af2 -- Arena Football's minor league.

"It doesn't really affect us too much," Dr. Michael Slyk, one of the Mahoning Valley Thunder's three owners, told the Youngstown (Ohio) Vindicator. "We're moving forward with the af2 season."

Although the AFL holds majority ownership in af2, the leagues are operated separately, with different economic models. The average salary for AFL players is about $85,000, with a $30,000 minimum. Af2 players make $200 per game, plus $50 per victory.

AFL teams also play in larger markets and require much larger travel budgets. An AFL team can have an annual budget between $10 million and $15 million; some af2 teams operate for as low as $500,000.

"It's a completely different model than ours," Slyk said. "We're able to absorb a little more (of an economic downturn), and we have a more reasonable market for expansion."

COMPILED BY STEVE CARP LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL