George Karl’s post-game press conference following a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers on Wednesday night pretty much told us all we need to know about where his head is at. The Sacramento Kings head coach is absolutely fed up.
Kings center DeMarcus Cousins saw himself foul out a game after he was ejected against the Golden State Warriors. It was the culmination of a frustrating night for the Kings in front of their home crowd.
And Karl wasn’t having any of it:
“My thought, and I told the team this,” Karl said after Wednesday’s game. “Inconsistent intensity and inconsistent focus, inconsistent toughness and mental discipline — too many times we have come out on this court and been the quiet team or the soft team.”
You simply can’t lose a home game against a two-win team and expect your coach to talk you up during the press conference immediately after the embarrassing performance.
Despite this, we can rest assured that Cousins and the rest of the Kings roster took note of Karl’s comments after the game.
By take note, we aren’t sitting here talking about heeding his call to play better defense or show passion for the game on a consistent basis.
Instead, the picture we have of Cousins is clear in our mind. As immature as it gets on and off the court, the talented big man probably chalked Karl’s comments up as George being George.
After all, the rift between these two larger than life figures is by now well known. It has also caused a major split between what Karl wants to do on the court and what his players are actually doing when on said court.
How else would you explain a team with three All-Star caliber players losing at home to one of the worst teams in the history of the Association?
We feel Karl’s frustration. We also understand that the situation in California’s capital city isn’t going to get any better as long as he’s coaching a team with Cousins on it.
The argument here has been two-fold when discussing the state of the Kings. Either Karl or Cousins has to go. That’s one thing most observers can agree on.
Depending on who you support between the two in what has now been a year-long rift will dictate who you believe should be sent packing.
Personally, it seems that Karl has gotten the shaft here. Cousins hasn’t shown any respect for a man that’s been around the NBA for the better part of five decades.
His lack of discipline on the court has also cost the team big time. With Sacramento playing Golden State extremely tough in the third quarter of their game earlier this week, Cousins was called for a fifth foul. He was then handed a technical before being thrown out of the game.
Golden State went on to score 23 of the next 27 points to put the game away.
We can all agree that the call on Cousins was about as weak as it gets. But he can’t put his team in a position to be missing its best player when being given an opportunity to defeat the defending champs on their home court.
In a Western Conference where the bottom two playoff seeds should be ripe for the picking, losing your head in this manner doesn’t do your team any favors.
This is a story we have seen repeated over and over again during Cousins’ often enigmatic tenure as the face of the Kings franchise.
The larger issue here is whether Cousins would even be willing to take advice from Karl. In a situation akin to this, most head coaches would pull their star player aside in the locker room and talk him through the on-court mistakes he made.
This obviously isn’t the type of relationship Cousins and Karl have. And in reality, it’s impacting the team’s bottom line a great deal.
Will ridding one of these ego-filled individuals of the other help turn things around in Sacramento? We have absolutely no way of answering that question.
The basketball argument here is that Cousins — as one of the top-10 overall players in the NBA — is more important to the Kings’ success. And while that might very well be true, there is also no telling whether he will get along with the next head coach.
After all, this is a guy that has been giving the Kings franchise troubles since long before Karl’s arrival last spring.
On the other hand, Karl hasn’t proven himself to be a successful head coach in Sacramento. He’s just 20-34 since taking over the head coaching job and boasts a 9-15 record this season. With the talent the Kings have, Cousins included, this isn’t acceptable.
It’s also important to take into account and read into Karl’s post-game presser. The body language tells us a story of a head coach that’s on the brink — a coach that simply doesn’t seem to have any answers at this point.
The words themselves. Well, those are even more damning:
“I like so many things about this team,” Karl said banging his hands against the podium. “And then, nights like tonight … it hurts.”
Karl later added:
“My feeling is that we have too many offensive players, and not enough defensive players.”
That right there is a knock on the personnel he’s sending on to the court on a nightly basis. It’s also not going to sit too well with a group of players that seem to be split from their head coach.
If Karl has no answers. If he’s going to act this part after his team loses. Well, that could very well be a sign that the veteran head coach should simply be removed from his current role.
Regardless of what happens with Karl, it might also be time for the Kings to simply move on from Cousins.
There can’t be any real expectation that a new head coach would have success in this type of toxic environment — an environment that Cousins himself seems to believe he controls.
Having a player with this type of ego is one thing. We have seen teams have success in the past. Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls and both of the teams LeBron James has starred for are two case studies.
However, both of these players had success (a championship for one) before they were given control over what their franchises did.
Yet to be a part of a winning team in his career, Cousins seems to believe he should be handed this on a silver platter. No coach worth a darn would join that situation knowing what we know about Cousins right now.
Despite being in the midst of a potential playoff race out west, the Kings are going nowhere fast. Keeping Karl and Cousins together would only prolong the inevitable. And in reality, keeping one without the other probably wouldn’t be much better.
It’s time for the Kings to simply move on from what has been a disastrous era for the franchise. They are moving into a new arena. They do have some young talent.
It’s now all about ridding themselves of the elements of the past. If that means getting rid of both Karl and Cousins, so be it.
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