George Karl Discusses Relationship with DeMarcus Cousins During Kings Tenure

Former NBA head coach George Karl discussed his 112-game Sacramento Kings tenure with Jason Jones of The Athletic and touched on a number of topics that included his relationship with All-Star big man DeMarcus Cousins.

Karl, who took over Sacramento with 30 games left in the 2014-15 season before leading the Kings for the entirety of the 2015-16 campaign, acknowledged a mistake in making comments to reporters in 2015 that implied Cousins wasn't untradeable.

Reflecting back five years later, Karl told Jones the following: "I've said it many times. I commented on not being smart enough to say DeMarcus wasn't tradeable. I think that was the biggest mistake."

Karl made these comments five years ago:

"I think we can make a big step next year. As an organization, we have to be aware of what if? What if we get offered [a good trade]? What if? That's Pete and Vlade's [Divac] area of expertise," Karl said in April 2015, per Bill Herenda of CSN Bay Area (h/t Brett Pollakoff of ProBasketballTalk).

"...I've had some great players and I've never had one player that I have said is untradeable. You always got to be ready for the possibility of a great trade that could come your way."

Karl did tell CSN's Kayte Christensen that he apologized to Cousins during the 2015-16 preseason. And he made similar remarks to reporters as well, per Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee. For his part, Cousins appeared to accept Karl's apology, saying that Karl was his "guy" and that he had a "solid" relationship with him.

However, per Jones, the chemistry wasn't there between the two.

"Nor did Karl ever get to a point where he and Cousins were on the same page," Jones wrote after Karl spoke of the daily organization-wide drama he said endured.

"Karl owns his part in that relationship being fractured."

Another reason for that fractured relationship may have been Karl's preference for small ball vs. a team more focused on a center.

"Karl has never been shy with acknowledging he's fond of small ball rather than relying on big men," Jones wrote. "That definitely played a part in the rift between him and Cousins. It also didn't help that in 2015 the Kings signed another center, Kosta Koufos, and drafted center Willie Cauley-Stein."

Jones also referenced a testy relationship between Karl and Cousins' then-agent, Dan Fagan. Jones, who called Fagan "a known Karl antagonist," noted that friction may have been the reason why Karl didn't land the Kings job earlier.

The Kings went 33-49 in Karl's only full season with the team. He was fired at season's end. Cousins was traded to the New Orleans Pelicans in February 2017.

Karl, who was an NBA head coach for 27 seasons, led 22 of his teams to the playoffs. He is one of nine NBA coaches to win 1,000 games and led the 1995-96 Seattle SuperSonics to a Western Conference title. Karl lives in Denver and hosts a podcast entitled Truth + Basketball with George Karl with Brett Goldberg.

Cousins, a four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA player, is currently a free agent. He suffered a torn ACL during a 2019-20 preseason workout as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers and was waived in February of this year. The big man has registered 21.2 points, 10.9 rebounds and 1.4 steals for his career and posted a double-double average in five of his nine seasons.