Sacramento Kings guard Caron Butler lifted the curtain on how he and teammates felt when the franchise decided not to fire George Karl before the All-Star break.
Appearing on ESPN’s First Take Friday, Butler said the team’s decision to keep Karl through the remainder of the 2015-16 season hit the players hard.
“As players, from All-Star break and everything, I mean, as far as we knew, he was fired,” Butler said. “We’re in Philadelphia a game before All-Star break and all of a sudden it’s like, ‘You’re not moving [on], I’m coming back.’ It was deflating to the locker room, it was deflating to the guys, and we tried to move forward and tried to do the best that we possibly could. But that was deflating to the team, it was a big blow and it was tough to move forward.”
It was certainly clear that Sacramento’s locker room and Karl were at odds throughout the season.
Obviously, the most public dispute was between Karl and Kings center DeMarcus Cousins, who had an extremely tumultuous relationship with one another. At one point, Cousins accused Karl of being the reason he was suspended, and many have wondered if Cousins was the reason Karl never succeeded in the first place.
During Karl’s tenure with the Kings, Sacramento went 44-62.
Now the franchise is under new leadership with head coach Dave Joerger, who signed a four-year contract last month. It is going to be fascinating to see if Joerger can find some common ground with Cousins as he attempts to bring a new attitude and demeanor to this club, which hasn’t had a winning team in a decade.