Vlade Divac went on The Jim Rome Show this afternoon to talk Kings and NBA free agency. Divac answered a number of solid questions from Rome, including how Willie Cauley-Stein fits on this roster, Rajon Rondo’s one-year deal, the DeMarcus Cousins trade rumors, and more. You can listen to the on-demand audio of Divac’s appearance right here. It’s worth checking out.

Of particular note to Kings fans, when asked about the relationship between DeMarcus Cousins and George Karl, Divac said –

"Well, I’ll be honest with you, I think its not pretty right now, but I am focused on bringing a better team this year, and I think I did a pretty good job in free agency, and now I’m going to 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. I really believe in DeMarcus, I think he’s our franchise guy, and I came here after ten years, I had a chance to win a championship here with the Sacramento Kings and it didn’t happen. I’m coming back to do that with DeMarcus."

Rome followed up by asking Divac if he expects both to be in Sacramento at the start of the season, to which Divac answered -

"I do expect. A lot of rumors around the country talking about how he’s not going to play for coach, coach wants to trade him, it’s not going to happen. If somebody makes a decision, I’m going to make a decision. So, I want to keep them both here for now. DeMarcus is definitely our guy, we want to build our team around him."

None of this is terribly surprising, although DeMarcus Cousins has been tweeting a lot of pro-Sacramento stuff lately, which at the very least tells us that he has a decent relationship with this organization right now. It doesn’t sound like that decent relationship is with Karl, but that's ok, for now.

This is speculative on my part, but it sounds like Divac has a pretty solid relationship with DeMarcus Cousins. If this situation with Karl doesn’t resolve itself, I have some confidence that Divac will choose the All-Star player in his prime over the Hall of Fame head coach who only has a few more years on the sidelines left in him. This goes without saying, but, ideally, it never comes to that.

If it’s any consolation, Carmichael Dave had an emoji filled response suggesting that Karl and Cousins will figure it out, so, there you go.

I believe this will be solved soon. ✈️ ⛵️ https://t.co/ArWjazljtz — Carmichael Dave (@CarmichaelDave) July 9, 2015

And I'll leave you with my favorite quote from the Jim Rome interview, which perfectly encapsulates what has been going on behind the scenes in Sacramento for far too long.

"They wouldn’t bring me here if everything was fine" – Vlade Divac