When the Sacramento Kings brought in George Karl to be the head coach successor to Mike Malone, the franchise player wasn’t thrilled. That franchise player was big man DeMarcus Cousins. Cousins hasn’t always been the happiest camper in Sacramento as he has been surrounded by trade rumors for the majority of his career.
This summer proved to be no different as multiple reports came out saying Karl demanded that Boogie be traded even though current GM Vlade Divac persistently denied the requests. This resulted in a damaged relationship between Karl, Cousins, and the Kings front office. However, Cousins did post a photo on Instagram the other day with his arm around Karl and a wide grin on his face. In a recent interview with Gary Washburne of the Boston Globe, Karl opened up on this summer’s fiasco:
“We have a lot of time to get back on the same page,” Karl said. “Summer talk and summer drama, I’ve always thought, is hype and so much of it is untrue. I’m not going to get into it but Cous and I have to work together to get back to together, and we will.”
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“I think all our guys are hungry for winning,” Karl said. “And Cous is our best player and most talented kid. And we need him to fill [a leadership] role. There’s a commitment from both sides.”
Seems that the Cousins-Karl relationship isn’t as shaky as everyone makes it out to be. Sure there are obviously going to be some disagreements and wrinkles here and there, but which franchise player-head coach relationship doesn’t? Either way, the Kings are most definitely going to be one of the more intriguing teams to watch next season.
