Rumor: DeMarcus Cousins cussed out George Karl in front of team

James Ham of CSNBayArea.com has repeatedly written that the vibe inside the Kings’ locker room after the team fell to 1-7 Monday, losing to San Antonio, was weird and off.

This would explain why if true — DeMarcus Cousins cursed out coach George Karl in front of the entire team, according to The Big Lead.

After Sacramento was hammered at home by San Antonio Monday night, the Kings’ star, DeMarcus Cousins, stormed into the locker room and cursed out head coach George Karl with a torrent of obscenities, a person close to the situation told The Big Lead.

After Cousins unleashed the F-bombs on Karl, all the head coach – who publicly feuded with the Kings best player last summer – could do was walk away, a source tells The Big Lead. Afterward, Cousins felt some remorse for his actions, asking a couple of teammates if he came down too hard on the coach. They calmly told him, “you can’t scream and curse like that at your coach in front of everyone.”

This is what led to the team meeting Tuesday before the team’s practice, a meeting that resulted in the usual “we’re all on the same page now” quotes, save for GM Vlade Divac admitting that the players have not yet bought into Karl’s system.

But the Big Lead had one other rumor out of that meeting, which I would take with a big grain of salt but speaks to the mess in that organization right now.

What hasn’t been reported is that after the players spoke, Sacramento general manager Vlade Divac and assistant GM Mike Bratz talked to the players and Divac asked the team, “We don’t know what to do with George [Karl], do you think we should fire him?”

I’m not sure Divac would do that. If Divac put that question to the players in a team meeting, he’s making more mistakes than we realized. If you’re not sure about a coach — and Divac the GM inherited Karl — you privately may talk about it with a franchise cornerstone player (like Cousins). But it’s not something where you want the players starting to lobby for or against a coach.

Looming over all of this is owner Vivek Ranadive, who has the patience of a four-year-old. DeMarcus Cousins, for all his flaws, has been undercut by ownership in Sacramento that is constantly changing the front office and with that constantly changing the style of play. The word consistency seems to be banned in Sacramento. Ranadive wanted Karl and got rid of Mike Malone, the guy Cousins’ liked. Ranadive wants an up-tempo team, but does not have a good up-tempo roster built. And looming over it all are the whispers around the league (mentioned by the Big Lead) Ranadive wants to bring in John Calipari and give him all the power. (I’m far from sold Calipari would take it.)

It’s a mess. And if the Kings don’t start picking up some wins, the pressure is only going to build.