The Sacramento Kings have dealt with a plethora of issues this season, not the least of which has been the relationship between head coach George Karl and just about everyone else in the organization. The feud between Karl and star player DeMarcus Cousins has been well documented, but he has also had plenty of issues with ownership and other organizational members as well.
Of course if the Kings were winning many of these problems wouldn't be talked about, but the Kings are not winning and are on the verge of being eliminated from playoff contention. Karl has had nine lives this season, as he was close to being fired on a couple of different occasions, but he still doesn't seem to be the long-term answer in Sacramento.
At one point earlier this season there were reports that the Kings would fire Karl in the coming days and they had even gone as far as to say who the interim head coach would be. The Kings had a change of heart, though, and said they would keep Karl "for now" and let him try to work things out for the rest of the season.
The Kings have just eight games left on their schedule, and they have basically made up their mind that Karl won't make it through the offseason. The issue is that the Kings don't want to fire Karl; they want him to resign so that they don't have to pay the remaining money on his contract. A report states that the Kings have tried several times to get Karl to resign, but obviously none of those attempts have worked.
It seems unlikely that Karl would resign considering he has about $6.5 million guaranteed left on his deal. If the Kings can't get him to resign soon, they are going to be forced to fire Karl so that they can have the full offseason to look for the best possible coaching candidate.
The Karl-Cousins feud has gotten the most publicity, but reports state that the coach's relationship with Cousins is much better than it is with anyone else in the organization, and that is saying something. Recently Vice President of Basketball Pperations Vlade Diva, said he was OK with a public rant Cousins went on that seemed to be aimed at Karl. Divac said he didn't think the rant was aimed at Karl, but there is clearly a major disconnect between Karl and the rest of the Kings organization. Wanting Karl to resign makes sense for Sacramento, but it doesn't seem like a reasonable option at this point, so they will likely have to fire him and just eat the remaining money he is owed.
