Report: Kings' Cousins, Rondo have two-hour meeting with coach Karl

By foxsports
Published

A little less than a month ago, reports indicated that the turmoil from this past summer had returned to the Sacramento Kings. There were rumors that coach George Karl was on the hot seat, incidents where DeMarcus Cousins reportedly cussed out his coach, and before that, even a media misunderstanding of a Rajon Rondo joke for good measure.

But communication is a powerful tool for getting people on the same page. And according to a report from Yahoo! Sports, Cousins, Rondo and Karl sat down for a "powerful" meeting last week that lasted for two hours, in which all sides voiced their opinions and worked out some of their differences in perspective:

“We asked him to just sit with us so we can pick his brain and share our thoughts,” Rondo told Yahoo Sports. “What I love about [Karl] is he’s very open. George is not a dictator. ‘What can we do positively? What can we do to improve?’

“If you can come into a meeting with no egos and everyone was humble, it just works out for the better.”

Rondo said that his main message to Karl was that he can use the veteran point guard as an example to the rest of the team, even if it means "bullying" Rondo. Cousins, for his part, said that his only concern is winning, and that he respects Rondo as a leader: "I basically look up to him."

Karl told Yahoo! that he heard the message from his two best players, including their request that he slow down the pace and be more selective in when he has the Kings run. Karl said that he was receptive to that criticism, as long as Rondo and Cousins "do what I want."