George Karl last coached in the 2012-13 season, when he won NBA Coach of the Year.
The Sacramento Kings and George Karl have reached an agreement on a four-year, nearly $15 million deal for him to become the team’s new head coach, Yahoo Sports/FOX Sports 1 Insider Adrian Wojnarowski reported early Thursday.
Karl is expected to replace interim coach Tyrone Corbin after All-Star break.
Karl last coached in the 2012-13 season, when he won NBA Coach of the Year with the Denver Nuggets before being fired following the team’s first-round playoff loss to the Golden State Warriors. Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro and assistant GM Mike Bratz worked with Karl in Denver.
The Nuggets made the postseason all nine years under Karl. They advanced past the first round only once during his tenure, losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2009 Western Conference finals.
Karl, 63, has 1,131 victories as a head coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Warriors, Seattle Sonics, Milwaukee Bucks and Nuggets. Karl is one of nine NBA head coaches to amass 1,000 victories.
The Kings fired Michael Malone in December after an 11-13 start in his second season as coach. Corbin took over in an interim role but found little success.
The dismissal of Malone was somewhat surprising because the team had showed progress until All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins missed 10 games with viral meningitis. Cousins was close with Malone and did not support his firing.
“I wasn’t consulted when the decision was made to fire Mike Malone and I’m not being consulted now,” Cousins said in the statement. “I just hope they make a decision soon and stick with it. George Karl is an experienced, proven coach and if that is who they chose to coach this team, I will support it. I do not like all these discussions in the media while we have a coach in place. It is a distraction and not fair to Coach Corbin and this team.”
The Kings have all but secured their ninth consecutive losing season.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.