Vlade Divac says George Karl has to trust him to do his job

Reports of drama in the Kings front office and the rift between DeMarcus Cousins and George Karl swirled this week and it all led up to the selection of Willie Cauley-Stein with the sixth overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft. Following the conclusion of the draft, a calm and collected Vlade Divac strolled out of the Kings draft room and onto the practice facility floor to speak to the media.

He wanted to make a few things clear: Cauley-Stein was his selection, he's in charge and there were some issues and those issues were between him and Kings head coach George Karl.

"It was a problem, but it wasn't Vivek and George, it was me and George," Divac said. "I respect my coach and I think he's great, but he has to trust me to do my job."

Divac, vice president of basketball and franchise operations, was trying to discredit the report that the relationship with Karl and Kings owner Vivek Ranadive was strained. He wouldn't delve into what the problems he had with Karl were (disagreements over trading Cousins are likely the culprit), but continued by saying he wants to build more trust with "his" coach, who was in the draft room Thursday night.

"We're trying, I know it's a lot of nervous stuff and maybe sometimes there is not trust there, I would like to have more trust over there between us," Divac said. "I have so much respect for my coach and I felt bad to do something that I didn't want to do, that I didn't like to do, but I had to do. Send a message not just for the coach, but for everybody over there: I want to be in charge of everything and if we make mistake then I know I made mistake, nobody else."