DeMarcus Cousins Isn't Making It Easy, but He's Trying to Make It Work with Karl

Mikuni, a Sacramento sushi restaurant, makes a roll called the DMC in honor of Kings center DeMarcus Cousins. The ingredients are a quirky but tasty combo befitting the roll's namesake: tempura lobster on the inside, slices of tuna and avocado on top, finished off with a sprinkling of crab mix and slathered sauces, all of it lightly seared with a blowtorch.

When a visitor to Mikuni asked if there was a George Karl roll, named after the Kings head coach who last season explored what the team might get for Cousins in a trade, owner and master sushi chef Taro Mikuni created one on the spot. It consisted of a massive jalapeno pepper in the middle with a seared chunk of albacore tuna on top.

Taro, of course, is tight with Cousins. The Karl roll was intended as a joke, not as something edible.

Despite Taro's protests, Cousins, who was visiting the restaurant, shoved a piece in his mouth.

After only a few chews, his eyes widened. He looked around wildly, found a garbage can and spit it out.

The anecdote is rich for two reasons. One, because Cousins literally couldn't stomach Karl (sushi roll version) as he demonstrated again by chewing out Karl (the actual one) in the locker room after an 18-point home loss to the San Antonio Spurs earlier this week that dropped the team's record to 1-7.

The second reason, which has been given far less notice: Neither the restaurant nor the locker room incident occurs if Cousins isn't at least trying to consume what Karl has to offer. Whether it's Taro telling him not to eat a piece of the roll or those around him questioning how Karl's up-and-down style benefits a big man, he has ignored the advice to reject George outright. Sources both inside and outside of the organization say Cousins has enough authority that if he truly wanted Karl gone, he would be already.

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Cousins, though, seems to be more interested in stability than simply getting his way, which is why he asked a veteran teammate if he'd done the right thing with his outburst and apologized when told he hadn't. A wiser man might've asked first and acted second, but Cousins feels an urgency that might not be apparent to everyone.

"I'm a young player, but I feel like I'm running out of time," he told B/R before the season started. "I feel like this is a big season for me."

Maybe that's why a 1-7 start, as status quo as it might be in Sacramento, put him on edge. He also accepts that clashing with Karl doesn't mean they can't coexist.

"My whole mindset is we don't have to like each other, love one another, go out to eat dinner as long as when we step between those lines we're on the same page and trying to get the job done," Cousins said.

The challenge, of course, is deciding whose book they're using and who is flipping the pages. Karl recently said his two successful but sobering battles with cancer have convinced him to delegate more than he ever has before, but if Karl has had a fatal flaw, those who have followed his career say it's not that he's a micro-manager but that he is a henpecker, particularly of his best player. He is beloved by the media because he's never been afraid to publicly needle his stars, most often in a good-natured way. Gary Payton in Seattle. Glenn Robinson in Milwaukee. Carmelo Anthony in Denver. And now Boogie.

Sometimes, though, the needle isn't always met with laughter in the locker room. While that source of friction at a team's core can serve as an accelerant, it also is apt, eventually, to lead to a meltdown.

If you haven't noticed, this also is a different era in the NBA when it comes to coaching. Jerry Sloan and Deron Williams didn't get along, but they still won several playoff rounds together in Utah. Even Don Nelson and Chris Webber coexisted in Golden State for one exciting 50-win season. But there's a reason Sloan, Nelson and coaches of their ilk are gone and have been replaced by men more willing to sublimate their ideas and egos to both the team owner and the team star. The my-way-or-the-highway coaches, outside of San Antonio and Dallas, are a dwindling lot.

If Karl didn't understand what the new ground rules were before, he should now. Reports are that GM Vlade Divac not only rejected Karl's desire to suspend Cousins for his locker room tirade but, according to a report by the Big Lead, asked the players what they thought their coach's fate should be. No wonder Karl appeared so subdued on the bench while the Kings, two days after Cousins' tirade, took the lead against the Pistons 68 seconds into the game and never looked back. At 64 and with his authority compromised, why would he be motivated to do anything other than induce the Kings to pay him off and let him walk?

"Wouldn't you?" said one league source who knows Karl well.

Meanwhile, Cousins hopes to quell the noise long enough to scratch off another item from his to-do list. All-Star team, check. Team USA, check. Postseason appearance…

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He has not abandoned the idea that he could check that off this spring. True, teams of that caliber don't tend to have stars blowing up at their head coaches in front of everyone. Nor do chunks of jalapeño usually work with sushi. But Cousins, for now, appears focused on proving the doubters wrong. Or, with flames of one kind or another shooting from his mouth, go down trying.

Ric Bucher covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.