It’s no secret that the Sacramento Kings are a mess. They have a star and a coach who don’t get along, a meddlesome owner, and a brand new GM. This past week’s travails just brought that point home more than ever.
After DeMarcus Cousins blew up on head coach George Karl after Monday’s loss to the Spurs, everyone assumed it would be the coach who would get canned, what with owner Vivek Ranadive’s quick trigger-finger, Cousins’ status as the star on the court and Vlade’s inappropriate query to the team. (Dear future NBA GM’s: Never ask the players if the coach should be fired; it undermines the coach and thwarts any respect you may have had with the players.)
Except Cousins — according to sources who spoke to Sports Illustrated‘s Chris Mannix — “has made it clear to Kings executives that he doesn’t want Karl fired.” The going theory is that even though the two don’t see eye to eye, Cousins knows Karl is a good coach and that continuity breeds winning.
For Karl, GM Vlade Divac has made it clear that he doesn’t have unilateral authority and he has to at least try to make Cousins happy. Divac reportedly overruled Karl when the coach tried to suspend Cousins for two games after Monday’s rant, which sends a clear message that the organization values the player more than the coach. Not that they’d need it after the president of basketball operations asked them if the team should fire the coach. (Sorry, it’s hard to let that go.)
Mannix also does well to remind us that all of this dysfunction comes straight from Ranadive, who fired clearly competent head coach Mike Malone last year, installed the green-as-grass Divac as GM over Pete D’Alessandro, and generally has appeared to be an owner in the James Dolan mode — capricious, superficial in his knowledge of basketball, and unwilling to take a back seat and let his franchise develop. For now, everyone below Vivek seems ready to work it out, if he’ll let them.
(Via Sports Illustrated)