Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins has had his share of issues to begin the season. Despite having a stellar season performance-wise, the mercurial big man has been in the middle of trade rumors (even more than before) all season long; escalating even more with the alleged assault committed at a New York nightclub where he and teammates Matt Barnes got physical with a couple.
Aside from his dominant 28.1 points and 10.9 rebounds per game, Cousins also leads the league in technical fouls, with nine, making trading him/acquiring him that much more difficult because of his reputation as a temper-flaring locker room plague.
Most recently, the 6-foot-11 center was involved in a verbal altercation with Sacramento Bee longtime columnist Andy Furillo, who saw Cousins for the first time after writing a column about the nightclub incident, where he mentioned a prior incident in Tampa where his brother, Jaleel, was arrested.
Cousins went on a profanity-laced tirade post-game in the locker room, verbally threatening Furillo for mentioning his family at the bottom of his column.
So what exactly did Furillo say that had Big Cuz up in arms? Here's an excerpt from the bottom of his column published on Dec. 9:
“For Cousins, this is his second late-night outing on the club circuit this year that ended badly. In May, TMZ caught him at The DrYnk in Tampa with his younger brother, Jaleel. The celebrity gossip website reported that he and his brother were trying to get into the club’s DJ area when a confrontation broke out. Jaleel wound up getting shocked with a Taser and arrested while friends hustled DeMarcus out of the place.
Now, along with The DrYnk, Cousins will always have the Avenue.
Maybe he, and Barnes, should find better places to hang out.”
The Kings' All-Star might have had a problem with Furillo bringing back old memories — but in reality, he did nothing wrong at all. The columnist shed light that it wasn't the first or only incident Cousins had been linked to that has ended in the news — or worst yet, a lawsuit. By mentioning the prior confrontation, he further proved the point of his column, which is fittingly titled: “Kings teammates Barnes, Cousins, need better hangouts in NYC.”
“He is a bully, to be sure,” said Bee columnist Ailene Voisin, who's had extensive experience covering the NBA. “He bullies everybody. He bullies his coaches, his teammates, team employees, reporters.”
“But this is the first time I have heard of him intimidating anyone physically,” she said. “He normally glares, stares and refuses to speak to the cluster of reporters if someone is present that he is annoyed with at that particular time. Or, he will simply refuse to answer a question from an offending reporter.”
Most recently Cousins has had a bone to pick with Leo Beas, managing editor of Cowbell Kingdom, part of ESPN’s TrueHoop blog network. Journalists say Kings spokesman Chris Clark wasn’t there when Cousins excoriated Beas, but he was when Beas attended the post-game interview and Cousins refused to answer any questions from anyone until the reporter left. Clark asked Beas to leave so others could do their jobs, according to Voisin.
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