Sacramento Kings: Vlade Divac believes that understanding is essential to winning

Luke Walton is the new coach of the Kings, as General Manager Vlade Divac does not care what sports experts think.

He does not care if they slap him or make fun of his accent or if they consider his decision to fire former Kings coach Dave Joerger as proof that the Kings are still dysfunctional after 13 years of lost seasons in the NBA.

Last week, Divac quickly evacuated Joerger despite the fact that the Kings finished with their best franchise record since 2005-06. In no time, Divac sued Walton, who was also fired last week by the Los Angeles Lakers.

And Walton joined Divac Monday at Golden 1 Center, where they were smiling, happy, ready to work together as "teammates".

The key words of Divac on his new recruit, his new look, his new couple and his new culture are:

"We understood each other very well," said Divac.

That, my friends, was the compass of Vlade Divac's life: to understand.

We Americans probably underestimate how much this Serbian peacekeeper was informed by his war-torn country.

We forget how he played basketball with blood brothers who became blood enemies because their country was separating from Serbian players and Croatian players who were suddenly opposed. Love has been replaced by hate. Understanding has given way to discord. Close friends died and the reconciliation never took place.

So now, if you really pay attention to what Divac says and what he does, he clearly has no time to argue.

Divac does not seek utopia. He knows that the NBA is a fierce company. He knows that hard words are part of the job. He gives as well as he takes.

But what Divac does not have time to do is people who can not find a way to work within a structure where winning is achieved through understanding.

If you really watched the Kings humming and tripping over the finish line, you would not ask why Divac fired Joerger and replaced him with Walton. If you really were listening to Divac when he was talking about what was important to him, you would not ask why Joerger left and why Walton is here.

Sports experts who do not regularly watch the Kings and do not listen to Divac have responded negatively to this question.

Some people around Sacramento have questioned the fact that a certain segment of the Kings nation is hungry emotionally and psychologically.

Fans have seen such an important team in Sacramento's identity be so bad for so long that any kind of success seems like a gourmet meal. These poor souls are so hungry to win that they have looked beyond the crumbs that Joerger served as the Kings went from 9 to 16 after winning their 30th match on February 10th.

Which brings us back to the critical questions you would ask simply by watching the games. Why did the Kings have a big lead after a big lead? Why did they downplay their competitors? Why did they fail to appear in too many games?

Why was Joerger disputed with guard Buddy Hield in a tight match against the Golden State Warriors that the Kings lost when Hield hesitated while he should have shot? Why is Hield faded?

Have you watched the last pathetic home game of the season when a raging mob suffered one of the worst defeats of the season against an underutilized New Orleans pelicans? Did you see the Kings take a 28-point lead in the last game of the season in Portland, while the Trail Blazers were not even trying to win?

None of this was good or positive, collaborative, intelligent or strategic. What's a young group of players learned from these experiences? Well, they learned how big shots in games. They seemed to learn to dismiss their coach.

In January, when I sat down with Divac to write a profile about him, it marked the first time I thought the Kings might be able to change coaches.

It's happened innocently enough. I asked Divac how Hield seemed to react well to Joerger's constant attack. I was surprised by the answer: "From the player's point of view, I'm sure (Hield) does not like it," said Divac. Whoa.

Divac gave the impression that he was watching the situation closely. He recounted how he had told Kings owners to wait for an extension to Joerger until the end of the season. He wanted to see how the team would behave when the stakes were high.

It did not go well. Joerger has never stopped being a thorny control freak. The players did not seem to play very hard for him too many evenings.

Someone Divac really wanted as a coach would have solved this puzzle. Someone that Divac wanted would have found a way to be bigger than him and to find a level of understanding allowing him to win.

For whatever reason. Joerger was not that guy.

The day after Portland's defeat, Divac got a four-year contract extension and Joerger left.

Is Walton the answer? He will have to prove that he is there. But Divac moved for him instantly because he saw a partner he understood. They were teammates in the last season of Divac with the Lakers. They are both friends, communicators. They both like people. They are not mercurial or tightly wound.

They understand each other. Understanding people and building a life of excellence is Divac's legacy. Through these achievements, he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Now, hope Divac, understanding will be the glue that will keep the Kings up to the championship.