Denver Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke apologized for the firings of former head coach Mike Malone and GM Calvin Booth, stating that they did not deserve it.
Denver Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke held a press conference today, where he discussed recent events, including the firing of head coach Michael Malone and GM Calvin Booth.
Kroenke emphasized that their firing was not a spur-of-the-moment decision, and that things had been heading in the wrong direction for some time.
"It was around Thanksgiving when I started feeling that things were not headed in the right direction or up to my standards as an organization," Kroenke said via Denver Sports.
"I saw it reported that I would sit in on meetings with Calvin and coach [Malone] at times, which I did," he stated.
"We had great, great conversations in those meetings. But I need more when I’m not around. My role is not necessarily to be there on a daily basis. I need people who are policing the culture and pushing it forward for me every day."
Kroenke hinted that he might have fired Malone earlier, but he felt it would have been too drastic while the team was on a winning streak.
"When you have a roster like we do, with the best player on the planet, it can mask a lot of things," Kroenke said.
"What would have been crazier? Me doing what I did last week or doing it during an eight-game win streak? My feeling and belief is that there was more in that locker room, and that’s what I acted on," he noted.
Although Kroenke expressed regret over the firings of both Malone and Booth, saying they didn’t deserve to be treated that way in the end, and apologized.
"To be frank, neither of them deserved it. And I apologize for that," he said via DNVR Nuggets. "I needed to be better at different points in time."
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