DeMarcus Cousins told Kings not to fire George Karl
By Tom West
The Sacramento Kings are the NBA’s most dysfunctional team right now, but DeMarcus Cousins has made it clear he doesn’t want George Karl fired.
The Sacramento Kings really haven’t got anything right in 2015-16 so far. It’s only expected that they would struggle on the court, as with a new point guard coming off a dismal season with the Dallas Mavericks in Rajon Rondo, and a new head coach and game plan with George Karl, things were never going to be amazing early on. So, even though a 2-7 record and 13th place standing in the Western Conference is bad, none of us were probably expecting much more.
However, the total breakdown off the court and the “internal issues” that have become a major problem is far more worrying for the Kings. DeMarcus Cousins made it clear by telling media that there are problems in the organization that need fixing, but according to Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated, Cousins has made it even clearer to Kings executives that he doesn’t want Karl to be fired.
Here is what Mannix has said about the situation, highlighting that the relationship between Cousins and Karl is something that the Kings are going to have to work out:
"Still, sources on both sides believe the relationship is salvageable, at least for the rest of this season. Cousins wants to win and he knows playing for a fourth coach in the last two years isn’t going to get him any closer to it. He has made it clear to Kings executives that he doesn’t want Karl fired, according to sources. And Karl understands he can’t meet ownership’s expectations without him."
At a first glance, it’s somewhat surprising to see that Cousins is certain he wants Karl around. After the Kings lost on Monday night to the San Antonio Spurs, Boogie went on a rant at Karl, containing plenty of profanity in front of the entire team. That’s beyond unacceptable, and immediately undermines the coach’s standing and respect with the team. So it makes perfect sense that Karl wanted to suspend Cousins, although that was overturned by the team’s GM Vlade Divac (per the Sacramento Bee).
Following that rant, the general disruption and negative murmurs among the organization, and the fact that Rondo also expressed weeks ago that his relationship with Karl wasn’t going well, it’s hard to see what they can suddenly do to improve the terrible chemistry throughout the team.
Equally, as Mannix pointed out when discussing Cousins’ take on the matter, the All-Star center knows he won’t get any closer to winning more than 30 games or coming remotely close to the playoffs if they bring in yet another head coach. We know DeMarcus Cousins is a hard character to deal with, but no matter how loyal the Kings and their owner Vivek Ranadive are to him, you can’t just fire everyone and see if that makes things better.
Right now, the Kings will have to avoid the cussing rants, the disputes between players and Karl, the constant talks of breaking up elements of the organization, and try and figure out how they can actually play together to win a couple of games. Maybe if they can find any slight success on the court, their spirits will improve enough to help simmer down the hot temperaments during the early stages of their 2015-16 campaign.
Just one win would be a start. They don’t exactly need much to improve now the bar is set so low.
Whether or not that will happen, though, is an entirely different story. As of right now, things can’t really get much worse from a chemistry standpoint. Maybe just tackling their problems head on and playing through the issues will eventually bring them together. Equally, it could tear them apart even further.
We’ll just have to wait and see how the Kings’ dysfunctional drama unfolds.