Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive has apologized to Geoff Petrie, saying that he "meant no disrespect" by his recent comments about the former general manager and acknowledging that "all the mistakes are my mistakes."
Ranadive issued his apology to the Sacramento Bee as part of a column published Saturday, four days after the unconventional owner criticized Petrie and former Kings coach Keith Smart during an interview with USA Today Sports.
"I wanted to sincerely apologize to Geoff Petrie and his team," Ranadive told the Bee. "I meant no disrespect. I have the utmost respect for what they have done for the franchise and what they have accomplished. I fully understand that it's a huge privilege to own a basketball team, and as chairman of the ownership, the buck stops with me. I accept responsibility for everything. All the mistakes are my mistakes."
Ranadive purchased a majority ownership of the Kings in May 2013 and replaced Petrie, who had been Sacramento's GM for 20 years, with Pete D'Alessandro a month later.
As part of his conversation with USA Today Sports, which was published last Tuesday, Ranadive said that Petrie and Smart did not want to be part of the Kings' rebuilding process at the end of the 2012-13 season.
"I had the draft was going to start, and players were going to come in for tryouts," Ranadive told USA Today Sports. "There was nobody there. I needed somebody to go and actually work out the players. Nobody wanted to there. Geoff didn't want to be there. The coach didn't want to be there. There was nobody there."
Those comments prompted sharp criticism from Petrie, a two-time NBA Executive of the Year who told Deadspin that Ranadive's account was a "sophomoric attempt at revisionist history."
The Kings have gone 90-156 in three seasons since Ranadive purchased the team. The Kings fired D'Alessandro after the 2014-15 season, replacing him with Vlade Divac, and are on their third head coach -- Dave Joerger -- in the last four seasons.
