Things seem to be going well between Sacramento Kings head coach George Karl and franchise player DeMarcus Cousins lately, easing tensions which included the head coach wanting to trade the NBA star during the offseason.
Apparently, the two failed to hit it off on the right foot and thus led to that celebrated Cousins trade rant which did not materialize. Team owner Vivek Ranadive was against the move and went as far to say that he would rather replace his coach than trade his prized power forward.
All that has died down and to date, both are trying to mend fences. All is quiet until now after Karl shared in an interview that he apologized to cousins about the trade issue.
“To be honest with you, I apologized to DeMarcus for making the trade comment that I’ve never coached a player that’s untradeable,” Karl told Kayte Christensen of CSN. “That was wrong for me to say, because you all (the media) took it and blew it up into crazy.”
Apparently, that statement he made before did get the matter out of hand and seemingly left the Kings in disarray.
Ranadive and VP Vlade Divac did repeatedly deny the claim and said that all was fine between Karl and Cousins and that no trade would be happening involving the temperamental power forward.
The months that followed that seemingly had awkward moments, including an instance where Karl wore a DeMarcus Cousins jersey which somehow sent mixed signals. Was he sarcastic or trying to send a message across?
Lest we forget, there was also that tense handshake between the two during the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.
The two haven’t really seen eye-to-eye yet though it looks like the fire has been somehow already put off.
As it stands, the coach-player relationship is technically still a work-in-progress and it remains to be seen how the two will jive once the season starts later this month.
The Kings are of course trying to rebound from a lackluster season and the whole Cousins trade issue seems to have placed them in a deeper hole rather than up.
Karl admits that he has his work cut out for him. Rather than help positivity on Cousins, that statement went the exact opposite. And now he may have to work double-time to negate that incident.
“I think DeMarcus has to make a commitment just to not allow frustrations to cause a disruption in the game,” Karl said earlier this week. “I don’t like negative emotion in a game. I think it’s a sign of frustration, it’s a sign of we’re losing. If there is any emotion in a game, it should be positive.”
Hopefully, that positivity does come out and result in a better showing for the Kings this season.