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George Karl is sorry for saying DeMarcus Cousins was tradable
The Sacramento Kings' offseason would have been complicated and messy even without questionable moves like the signing of Rajon Rondo. Shortly after the NBA Finals, reports surfaced that head coach George Karl was trying to trade All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins, one of the most productive big men in the league and someone the Kings should feel lucky to have. Karl and Cousins eventually made up and appear ready to give their relationship another try this season, but the possibility of further animosity remains.
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Nevertheless, we should credit Karl for trying to make amends. He continued to do so in a new feature by Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee:
“That’s my guy,” Cousins said early last week, describing the relationship with his coach as “solid.”
Karl, who angered his sixth-year veteran late last season by suggesting every player was tradeable, apologized during a Divac-facilitated meeting during the offseason that seems to have repaired the breach.
“What I said, I should not have said,” Karl reiterated Friday. “But we all make mistakes. I make mistakes with game-planning, make mistakes coaching. DeMarcus makes mistakes. I think he was a little surprised (laugh) to hear me say that I make mistakes and that I’m going to ‘bleep up’ again.”
Karl echoed those comments in an interview with Kayte Christensen of CSNBayArea.com. James Ham of the same website has the quotes:
“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 Christensen. “That was wrong for me to say, because you all (the media) took it and blew it up into crazy.”
“But it’s my responsibility to be smart enough to not say things like that,” Karl continued. “So I did apologize because I thought that was the only thing, maybe some other things, but really the only thing that got us separated was that comment that then everybody wrote the we’re going to trade [Cousins].”
To be clear, Karl is apologizing for the initial April comment that he had never coached an untradeable player. Yet that issue was not nearly as controversial as the reports that surfaced two months later, when Yahoo's Adrian Wojnarowski and many others reported that Karl was pushing Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and lead personnel man Vlade Divac to trade Cousins. The first comment actually makes some sense, because a sweetheart deal can always change opinions. But that hypothetical is very different from a specific report that said Karl wanted to move Cousins without any deal in place. The original "untradable" comment was thoughtless — the desire to trade Cousins was legitimately controversial.
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It is easy to see why Karl would not address the June trade reports, because discussing them in any way could be construed as a confirmation. However, that doesn't mean Karl should act as if he has addressed every controversy of the summer. The news that actually caused many fans and observers to think that Cousins would be dealt has still not been touched.
Again, we can't really blame Karl for refusing to talk about those reports. But his incomplete response does point to the Kings' problems in addressing every issue that came up in this messy summer. Like it or not, they're going to have to silence doubts with wins.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at efreeman_ysports@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
