Following an unseemly public meltdown Wednesday night, Sacramento hit chronic malcontent DeMarcus Cousins with a one-game suspension Friday, but in the view of the Bee’s Andy Furillo, that’s not nearly punitive enough. “Trade him, cut him, whatever. It would be a steal if the Kings could get 50 cents on the dollar, a bargain at 35 cents and a good deal at a quarter. Maybe even a nickel,” surmises Furillo, adding, “they have never won with him, and there is no reason to believe they ever will.”
His recent suspension, like his others, resulted from his disrespect for the game and many of the people who play, coach, officiate and work around it. This time, he ripped on Kings coach George Karl for not protecting him from the refs. Please. What Cousins wanted his coach to do was support his bad behavior. But what Cousins needs to do is change that bad behavior. The Kings’ new upper-level managers have enabled it for three years. Now they’re going to be stuck with his bad vibe when they move into their new arena in October unless they wise up and cut him loose.
After he was suspended, Cousins put a cartoon on Instagram that depicted two men sitting at separate tables underneath banners reading “comfortable lies” and “unpleasant truths.” The line for the lie stretched out of the frame. Nobody wanted to hear the truth.
This might come as an unpleasant truth to Cousins, but the No. 1 person in this world who can protect him from his own behavior is himself. Most people begin to learn this about the seventh grade. Cousins, however, prefers to blame others while he spins out of control. It is part of the comfortable lie he’s been telling himself for six years.