Karl downplays challenges with Cousins, Rondo

He wasn't wearing a DeMarcus Cousins jersey to show he had no issue with his franchise center, but Sacramento Kings coach George Karl was verbally shutting down talk of a team implosion this week.

Karl downplayed any rift with Cousins during an appearance on Sirius XM NBA Radio, saying the gossip mill is responsible for most of the chatter.

"The crazy world of gossip and innuendo and blogs and sarcasm and criticism, so much of this stuff is not the truth," Karl said. "Cuz and I, we're going to have our battles. He's passionate, he's emotional, he wants to win. He doesn't like what's happened (with the Kings organization) in the last five years, and I like that about him."

Karl compared Cousins' fiery nature to Hall of Fame point guard Gary Payton, whom he coached with both the Seattle SuperSonics and the Milwaukee Bucks.

"Unfortunately when you lose, you're really emotional," Karl said. "I want Cuz to be emotional and passionate, but I also want him to be the leader of our team."

Karl apologized to Cousins for saying he's never had an "untradeable" player, an April comment that opened the floodgates to a summer-long controversy over whether Cousins was wanted by the organization.

With the hatchet supposedly buried after Cousins' subsequent "snakes in the grass" tweet, the focus for Sacramento can now move to trying to compete for a playoff spot in the loaded West. The Kings have undeniable talent, but there's also a certain morbid curiosity factor at play, as there was last season when the team's decision-making structure appeared to be in complete disarray. Adding the mercurial Rajon Rondo to the mix should only serve to add suspense to this year's edition, something Karl also downplayed.

"I think (Rondo has) just got to get confidence," Karl said, with the point guard coming to Sacramento off of a disastrous experience with the Dallas Mavericks. "I'm challenging him every day to go back to what he can do. He can rebound and he can push the ball really well. He can create basketball plays for other people as well as maybe any point guard in basketball."

Rondo does at least appear to be having fun with the microscope on the team, setting off a false alarm with a deadpan joke about Karl during the preseason.