Make that 225 coaching changes since Jerry Sloan took over as head coach of the Utah Jazz.
The latest — Sacramento fired both head coach Reggie Theus and assistant Chuck Person on Monday — has strong ties to Sloan and the Jazz.
Taking over for Theus on an interim basis is Kings assistant Kenny Natt, who both played for the Jazz and spent nine seasons as a Sloan assistant in Utah.
"He worked very hard, and we thought a lot of him," Sloan said of Natt, who also spent two years as a Jazz scout. "Hated to see him leave, but that's just part of basketball."
Sacramento had lost 10 of its last 11 games before the firing, including a 24-point loss Saturday to New York.
Natt becomes Sacramento's fourth coach in less than three years, joining Theus, Eric Musselman and Rick Adelman.
Said Natt, who worked the Kings' game against Minnesota on Monday, to reporters in Sacramento: "I've been schooled by one of the best coaches in the league in Jerry Sloan, and one of the things that he's done ... is get guys to come out and play hard in practice each day. What I've told these guys is all I'm asking them is (for) hard work and discipline each day in practice, because that's where you win basketball games. Not during the game. Games are won in practice."
Theus played in Chicago when Sloan coached — and was fired by — the Bulls, and he later was a star with the Kings.
The former New Mexico State coach became the sixth NBA coach to get fired less than two months into the 2008-09 season.
"It seems like it's every other day," said Sloan, whose Jazz played Monday night in Boston.
Count Philadelphia's Maurice Cheeks, Randy Wittman (Minnesota), Sam Mitchell (Toronto), Eddie Jordan (Washington) and P.J. Carlesimo (Oklahoma City) as the others who have lost their jobs during the same season in which Sloan commemorated his 20th anniversary as head coach of the Jazz.
According to ESPN.com, that's double the previous NBA record for pre-Christmas firings.
"If you don't win in this league, you get axed," Jazz point guard Deron Williams said after learning of the latest dismissal. "I mean, it's the name of the game. You get your chances. Make the most of them, or your gone."
The 50-year-old Natt, brother of fellow former NBA player Calvin Natt, gets his first head coaching job.
Kenny Natt played for the Jazz in the early 1980s, appearing in 22 games in the 1982-83 season and four in 1984-85.
In 1984, incidentally, he was a Jazz training camp roommate of camp hopeful Jay Triano — who earlier this month coached his first NBA game, a loss in Utah, as the interim replacement for the fired Mitchell in Toronto.
This is the second year with the Kings organization as a coach for Natt, who also played for Indiana in the 1980-81 season and briefly for the Kansas City Kings in 1984-85. The Louisiana-Monroe product was an assistant with Cleveland prior to joining Theus' staff in Sacramento.
The switch is the Kings' eighth since Sloan succeeded Frank Layden on Dec. 9, 1988.
Contributing: Tim Buckley in Boston. E-mail: jody@desnews.com