Vivek Ranadive exercises the ultimate authority on all player personnel matters for the Sacramento Kings, according to sources.
Ranadive insists that he has empowered Vlade Divac to make those decisions. Ranadive also told one source the only decisions he has made have been trading for Rudy Gay in 2013 and refusing to deal DeMarcus Cousins.
Ranadive still won't entertain the prospect of trading Cousins.
"You would think that after making an ass of yourself, whether it's 4-on-5 or one bad hire after another, that you'd become more collaborative and seek out help," says a well-placed source. "Vivek has done just the opposite. Instead of putting together a brain trust, he's his own brain trust -- he and whoever the last person he talked to is."
One league source who knows the owner well says Ranadive, who still lives in the Bay Area, has an "unhealthy fixation on the Warriors." Sources close to the Kings partnership say that Ranadive "can't help himself" from claiming credit for innovations in Golden State.
"Vivek tries to portray himself as one thing, but he's meddlesome and it's hurting the basketball," says a high-level source who knows the Kings' operation. "It was a mess [under the Maloofs], and it's still a mess."