George Karl wants Sacramento Kings 'to have success'

Nine months after being fired by the Sacramento Kings after a brief but tumultuous tenure, longtime NBA head coach George Karl says he has no hard feelings toward the organization, or toward DeMarcus Cousins, who he clashed with time and time again during his season and a half with the team.

"You know, I made mistakes. I would rather right now learn from what I think I learned," Karl told Paste BN Sports' Sam Amick and Jeff Zillgitt on a recent NBA A to Z podcast where he discussed his new book, Furious George, which was released Tuesday.

"Sacramento is having a good year, DeMarcus is playing great. I want them to have success. I'm not rooting against them ... I enjoyed the city. I enjoyed a lot of parts of the staff and the organization, and I want Sacramento to have a good team someday."

According to a late-December report from ESPN, which cited league sources, Karl had "some unflattering views" about Cousins, Kings general manager Vlade Divac and owner Vivek Ranadive removed from the final version of the book because he had "not authorized" those pages to be printed. According to the report, one of the terms of Karl's settlement agreement with the Kings was that he must refrain from "critical commentary."

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Despite his less-than-favorable finish in Sac Town, Karl, who also said he regrets some of the recent controversial comments he made toward Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin and J.R. Smith, didn't rule out the possibility of a return to the sidelines, saying that he has a "passion and love for the game" that he doesn't think will go away.

"I've been gifted the honor and privilege of being a head coach for many, many years in the NBA. If I am gifted with another job, I'll work my tail off and give them the best effort I've ever given, and I'll give them all my experiences," he said.

You can listen to the entire podcast below or on iTunes.