J-Speaks: The Low, High and Low of DeMarcus Cousins

Here are three words to describe Kings All-Star center and Olympic Gold Medalist DeMarcus Cousins. Talented, skilled, and strong, which is good. Here are three other words to describe Cousins. Volatile, indiscipline and selfish, which is bad. All of that and then some were put on display throughout this week both on and off the court.  

Earlier this week, an article done by ESPN.com written by Marc Spears stated that the Kings fined Cousins $50,000 by the Sacramento Kings for his recent run-in with a beat writer that covers the Kings from the Sacramento Bee, which was reported back on Tuesday. The team did say that he will not be suspended.

The tirade that the third leading scorer in the NBA at 29.3 and 11^th leading rebounder at 10.8 per game had with the Bee’s Andy Furillo stems from a column published from this past weekend, which refereed to the arrest of Cousins’ younger brother Jaleel back in May.

The column also addressed an incident at a nightclub in New York City earlier this month, which resulted in Cousins and his teammate Matt Barnes being sued over an alleged assault of a woman in the club.

In a statement released by the Kings, Cousins apologized in a statement, where he said, “There is a time, place, and manner to say everything, and I chose the wrong ones,” Cousins said. “Like most people, I am fiercely protective of my friends and family, and I let my emotions get the best of me in this situation. I understand my actions were inexcusable and I commit to upholding the professional standards of the Kings and the NBA. I apologize to my teammates, fans and the Kings organization for my behavior and the ensuing distraction and look forward to moving on and focusing on basketball.”

The Kings also issued a statement in response to that incident saying, “The Kings have a clear set of standards of conduct expected of our entire organization. As a result of negative interactions with certain members of the media that were not corrected after verbal warnings, we have decided to impose a substantial fine. If this behavior is repeated again we will be forced to consider further discipline.”

First year head coach of the Kings Dave Joerger back on Monday called the actions of Cousins “excessive,” backed his star player by saying he does not think the Bee was being fair in their reporting in regards to cousins.

“I think we dealt with it and the more you talk about it, the bigger it exasperates itself,” Joerger said prior the Kings home tilt versus the struggling the Portland Trail Blazers back on Tuesday evening at the Golden 1 Center. “I said what I had to say on it, moved on. DeMarcus had to say what he had to say on it we roll on.”

With all that Cousins went through this week, let alone what he has gone through in his time in his career in Sacramento, he responded in a major way against the Trail Blazers on Tuesday night with what Comcast SportsNet California (CSN) play-by-play commentator Grant Napear the best game he ever played.

Cousins scored 17 of his 55 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Kings (11-17) to a 126-121 come from behind win versus the Trail Blazers (13-17). Cousins, who fell one point short of his career-high also had 13 rebounds going 17 for 28 from the field, including 5 for 8 for three-point range and 16 for 17 from the free throw line.

While what Cousins did in the fourth quarter, especially scoring wise. It was what took place in the closing moments of the fourth that overshadowed that stellar scoring performance.

In the closing minute of the fourth, Cousins after scoring and getting fouled by Trail Blazers’ center Mason Plumlee, Cousins was given his second technical foul by lead referee Brain Forte and ejected from the game after spitting his mouthpiece in the direction of the Trail Blazers’ bench after making the shot.

In disbelief, Cousins ran into the tunnel towards the Kings’ dressing room, but after Forte, Pat Fraher and Haywoode Workman conferred with each other and concluded that Cousins did not throw his mouthpiece out of his mouth towards the bench of Portland.

In the most unusual of circumstances, Cousins was called back to the court and completed the three-point play that gave the Kings a 122-119 lead with 35 seconds left in the game and the eventual win.

Despite his great performance, Cousins was very upset at how he continues to get mistreated by NBA game officials and said as much with Kings’ sideline reporter for CSN Kayte Christensen after the victory.

“It’s ridiculous. It’s obvious what’s being done out here. It’s a nightly basis,” Cousins said to Christensen. “I hope the world can see now what’s really going on out here because it’s getting ridiculous. It’s really ridiculous.”

On the situation with his mouthpiece coming out of his mouth by accident, Cousins said to Christensen, “Yes! Yes man! This is ridiculous man. Ridiculous.

He then also made a statement about the Trail Blazers game plan was for the likes of their front court people like Plumlee, who had a career-high of 25 points on 10 for 13 shooting with 13 rebounds, five assists and two block shots to be physical with him and the Kings team as a whole by saying, “That was light man. I know what their game scheme is every night. Their hyping up their big man over there. He thinks he’s a stopper. It’s not happening. I brought him back to reality tonight.”

Cousins seemed to calm down during his media session in the locker room with reporters. He was smiling and calm calling the media, “friends,” and that he missed them.

When asked about the fine, Cousins responded by raising his right thumb up and smiled

This week was a microcosm into what Cousins has been for his entire six-year career with the Kings. He has incredible talent and an amazing gift to score and rebound, but the inability to control his emotions and that has led him to be called for 103 technical fouls, including eight this season, which is the most by a player in the league since 2010-11.

That inability to take his disdain for bad calls in a game or the inability to deal with difficult questions by the press has led to the perception by others that he is out of control and that he could finish his career with being just another player that put-up eye popping numbers, but did nothing meaningful like win championships.

It has also put the Kings organization in a serious dilemma a year from now where he could walk away in free agency and join another team, something that NBA on TNT analyst Charles Barkley talked about on Sirius XM NBA Radio on dealing with Cousins on Wednesday.

“I wouldn’t trade for him because you’re going to have to give up a lot to get him and I think it’s too late in his career for him to change and I think he’s going to get you fired,” Barkley said. “So, would you give him another $125 million dollars? At that point, you not going to do anything with him. If you haven’t been able to control him when he’s been making his good money, you give him a max deal of $25, $30 million dollars a year, you really think you’re going to be able to tell him anything then?”

As Isiah Thomas, two-time champion with the Detroit Pistons in 1989 and 1990 stated though on the American Express Halftime Report of the Milwaukee Bucks versus Cleveland Cavaliers contest on Wednesday, Barkley turned his reputation around from where it was back in the early 1990s and became a Hall of Famer.  

Sekou Smith concurred that Cousins does have time to repair the perception many have of him of his inability to keep his emotions in check for a lengthy period to turn the Kings into a winning organization. While he is putting up great numbers that arguably make him one of the very best front court players in the NBA, but he is not doing the things necessary to become that player that can lead his team to the postseason year in and year out.

“Even on the court, for him to be as great a player as he is, but not to impact his teammates and not make the Kings better. That’s tough, because you got to look at him,” Smith said.

Thomas said Cousins is going to have to decide does he want to win championships in his career or does just want to make a lot of money in his career?

“Right now it appears that he wants to play and make money in this league, which is okay. A lot of players are doing that” Thomas said on Wednesday. “But if he wants to get to the level where he’s a champion and play on a championship team, then your personality and who you are as a person. Your whole personhood has to change to be on a championship team and to play for a champion.”

Thomas also said that the one thing that will make him change is that if he is just playing for money and for stats, that the money is taken from him

“Because I guarantee you if you take away the money, then guys will change. We all do,” Thomas said. It is one thing to be a great individual on a team, it is another thing to be a great individual player and be a distraction and somebody the opponent does not respect. That is the situation that Cousins finds himself in. A great player who can fill up a box score and is amazingly skilled that has made a couple of All-Star teams and even as mentioned earlier won an Olympic Gold medal for Team USA in Rio earlier this summer. He has yet though led the Kings into the postseason and has shown his frustration at the smallest thing in a game, which has led to a few ejections and a dislike from the opposition like from the Trail Blazers reserve forward/center Meyers Leonard, who has history with Cousins dating back to a preseason title between the Kings and Trail Blazers in 2015 did not hold back his feelings of Cousins during his postgame interview.

“He deserves to be out of the game for what he did,” Leonard who battled foul trouble the entire night and did not score and had just one rebound and two assists in 19 minutes. “He’s a very skilled player, had a very good game. But his antics are over the top. He’s disrespectful. Out of line. The list of words could go on. I can’t respect someone like that.”

This is the perception that Cousins must change at some point. If he does not, he will be just another player who had a good career stats wise and all he had to show for it was just numbers and no titles or just a chance at one. It is all up to him.

Information, statistics and quotations are courtesy of www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/recap?gameid=400899870; 12/20/16 www.espn.com article, “Kings Fine DeMarcus Cousins $50K For Tirade Vs. Columnist, Per Report,” by Marc Spears; 12/20/16 7 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Tas Melas, J.E. Skeets, Leigh Ellis and Trey Kerby; 12/21/16 usatoday.com article “Meyers Leonard On DeMarcus Cousins: ‘I Can’t Respect Someone Like That,” by AJ Neuharth-Keusch; 12/21/16 American Express Halftime Report on NBATV’s contest between the Milwaukee Bucks versus Cleveland Cavaliers with Vince Cellini, Sekou Smith and Isiah Thomas and the 12/21/16 5:30 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “The Starters,” with Tas Melas, J.E. Skeets, Leigh Ellis and Trey Kerby.