George Karl has been away from the media for the past couple of weeks and rightly so. He is 5th in All-Time coaching wins, most likely a Hall Of Famer and is finally out of the toxic environment that is the Sacramento Kings organisation.
He is now back after a knee replacement and all things considered, it’s all good in the Karl clan. Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee recently talked with George Karl and Karl was calm about it all. Firstly, understanding about the Kings making all their recent decisions.
“Vlade (Divac) has a helluva task ahead of him,” Karl said. “The roster needs to be tinkered with. He is going to be in for an NBA free agency unlike anything we have ever seen. 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.”
“Eighty percent of the time I think the Kings did what had to be done,” Karl said of his firing after his 44-68 record. “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.”
Eighty percent? That’s a bit high for my liking, but he knows more so I’ll take his word for it.
Onto the main course, DeMarcus Cousins. They had a very interesting relationship to say the least.
“I never felt I got into a good place with Cuz,” Karl said, “and some of that was my stupidity when I said that no player is untradeable. 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.”
That “No player is untradeable” thing pretty much put Karl in a hole and he never got out of it in Cousins’ eyes. But then again why should he? Sure Cousins is the franchise player but in the grand scheme of things he’s done nothing in the league. George Karl is the 5th winningest coach in NBA History.
Like George Karl said, his philosophy tells him that a coach has to feel powerful. I don’t think he ever did. With DeMarcus Cousins on one side and Vlade Divac on the other. He was stuck in the middle and eventually got squeezed out. I feel for whoever succeeds him.
