George Karl and Nancy Lieberman have a rift on Kings’ staff

Sacramento Kings head coach George Karl and assistant coach Nancy Lieberman are two great basketball minds that simply can’t get along in Sacramento.

Sacramento Kings head coach George Karl has won over 1,000 games as an NBA head coach with six different franchises since the mid-1980s. Kings assistant coach Nancy Lieberman is in the National Basketball Hall of Fame as one of the greatest women to have ever played the sport.

So how do two people who have left such a huge imprint on the game of basketball cannot coexist on one sideline a Sacramento, California? Sam Amick of USA Today spoke with the Kings’ All-Star center and face of the franchise DeMarcus Cousins about the newest wave of turmoil emanating from the hardwood of the California Capital.

Cousins essentially told Amick he “sees the in-fighting on the coaching staff, with assistant coach Nancy Lieberman identified as a [Kings owner Vivek] Ranadive confidante and thus unofficially exile by Karl months ago.”

The Kings organization tried to fire Karl back in February, but ultimately decided not to, as Amick believes Ranadive preferred Lieberman and general manager Vlade Divac preferred other top assistant Corliss Williamson.

Karl caught wind of the supposed Ranadive/Lieberman alliance and has turned his back on one of the two women assistant coaches in the NBA. Becky Hammon has been an assistant coach the last two years for Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs after a successful career in the WNBA and overseas in Russia.

Amick believes, and rightfully so, that Karl will be gone at the end of the 2015-16 NBA season, which would mark the 10th straight season that the Kings have failed to reach the Western Conference Playoffs.

While promoting Lieberman to head coach would certainly be the attention-grabbing move that Ranadive is notorious for, it seems that regardless of whomever the Kings organization chooses to be the next head coach, even the often-disgruntled Cousins is beginning to grow tired of the dysfunctional culture in the Kings organization.

Cousins has played for five head coaches since going No. 5 overall to the Kings in the 2010 NBA Draft after a one-and-done stint at the University of Kentucky. He has two years left on his deal with the Kings and may want to skip town by the time he turns 27 in two summers. Frequent turmoil on the sidelines and in the front office isn’t going to want to make Cousins re-up with the Kings in Summer 2018.

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