NBA: George Karl Says He Never Felt Empowered With Kings & They Sided With DeMarcus Cousins
George Karl was fired as head coach of the Sacramento Kings and now he’s speaking his mind about his time there. He reveals that he never really felt powerful and believed that the front office was more inclined to please franchise star, DeMarcus Cousins.
via ESPN:
“I never felt I got into a good place with Cuz,” said Karl, who was fired April 14 after going 44-68 in parts of two seasons with the Kings. “Some of that was my stupidity when I said that no player is untradable.
“I still believe that. But I should have been smart enough not to say it, and I in no way, at any time, thought DeMarcus was going to get traded.”
“Eighty percent of the time, I think the Kings did what had to be done,” Karl said. “But I’m old-school enough to think that a coach has to feel powerful, has to feel supported — and I never felt that level of support. … Vlade has a helluva task ahead of him. The roster needs to be tinkered with. He is going to be in for an NBA free agency unlike anything we have ever seen.
“That night the bomb went off (referring to Cousins profanity laced tirade),” Karl said. “Vlade was right there. When they supported Cousins instead of me, I felt, ‘OK, I’m in the compromise position. Cuz has the power.’
“They sent that message many times, too many times sent it to the players. And the players wanted someone to stand up to Cuz, and they wanted it to be their coach. But at that point, I realized that you either compromise or you blow it up, and my job was to make us a better basketball team and get to the end of the year.”
“If the decision is made to keep Cuz, you have to put the right players around him. But it can’t be about Cousins. You have to make basketball decisions.”
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