Vlade Divac, Sacramento Kings vice president for basketball and franchise operations, revealed the true status of head coach George Karl and All-Star center DeMarcus Cousins' relationship in a radio interview on CBS Sports Radio's "The Jim Rome Show."
Cousins and Karl reportedly have had a rough relationship since the arrival of the veteran coach to the Kings last February.
"I will be honest with you. I think it's not pretty right now. I'm focused on bringing a better team this year, and I think I did a pretty good job in this free agency, and now I will be focused on the two of them. I think they should think about how they can do the best for this team, and I hope everything goes well," Divac, 47, said in the interview.
The Kings executive added that he wanted to win a championship for the franchise with Cousins, who he believes was their "franchise guy."
Divac also discussed the issue of Cousins joining other teams since the budding big man has been linked to a number of trade rumors in recent weeks. Karl reportedly wanted Cousins to be dealt, as he was having a hard time handling him since taking over as Kings head coach.
But Divac said he was the only member of the organization who made those decisions. "A lot of rumors around the country talking about 'he's not going to play for coach', 'coach wants to trade him.' It's not going to happen. If somebody is going to make a decision, I'm going to make the decision," he said.
"So I want to keep them both here for now. DeMarcus is definitely the guy that we want to build a team around," Divac added.
The Kings have done a good job this free agency by adding guards Rajon Rondo and Marco Belinelli, who already won a championship each, and veteran center Kosta Koufos.
