The beginning of the end for Michael Malone's relationship with the Sacramento Kings' front office came last season when the club signed Royce White.

White was out of shape and struggled in his D-League appearances, but the front office wanted him to play in games with the Kings.

"Pretty soon, they're telling [Malone]: Why aren't you putting him in the games?" one organizational source told Yahoo Sports. "That's when it really started to get bad between him and the guys upstairs."

Pete D'Alessandro didn't hire Malone as head coach, but often acted as the messenger with notes from Vivek Ranadive.

Management didn't believe in Chris Jent as his top assistant, and went out on its own and interviewed two ex-head coaches, Alvin Gentry and Kurt Rambis, for the staff.

Malone suspected they were trying to hire his eventual successor, and pushed to get Tyrone Corbin hired in the job. 

The issues increased when Ranadive pushed for the Kings to trade for Josh Smith despite concerns that a frontcourt with Smith, DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay wouldn't work.

"The Smith situation caused everyone to take sides: Management against coaches, coaches against management," a source told Yahoo Sports. "Things only got worse."

The Kings were looking for an excuse to fire Malone and it came with Cousins out with a virus.

"They should've done this in the summer, and brought in the coach and style that they wanted," one league official close to D'Alessandro and Malone told Yahoo Sports.