Speaking with Draymond Green on his podcast, former NBA big man DeMarcus Cousins looked back on some of the defining moments of his career. On the subject of his tenure with the Kings, Cousins was open and honest about how tough the experience was for him.
“It was tough and it was confusing,” said Cousins. “I was coming from a situation at Kentucky where Cal treated us like pros. I remember in my rookie season it was a simple task and I remember Cisco saying something like ‘You really was spoiled at Kentucky.’ And in my head I’m thinking ‘Damn maybe I was!’ Long story short Cisco ended up getting traded to the Rockets and I remember when he went there he ended up tapping in with me and he was like ‘I remember that day I called you spoiled. I was wrong. We were in a sh*thole.’ I’m not here to sh*t on the Kings or anything like that. In sports, you have up and down years, I just so happened to come in at a point where it was down years.”
"It was tough and it was confusing"
—@boogiecousins speaks with @Money23Green about his days with the Sacramento Kings pic.twitter.com/p97CMxREEz
— The Volume (@TheVolumeSports) August 22, 2024
The Sacramento Kings are not a team with a great history of success and up until a few years ago, they were a laughing stock of the basketball world. Of course, today, the Sacramento Kings are actually competitive in the West and there’s a lot of respect across the league for what they are building. With De’Aaron Fox, Domantas Sabonis, and Keegan Murray, they have a solid core that should make some noise for years to come.
During Cousins’ days in the league, the situation was very different in Sacramento. The franchise had practically no history of success and they were still a team that most people viewed as dysfunctional. In seven seasons with the Kings, Cousins never made the playoffs and he never played with An All-Star teammate. It wasn’t until he was traded to the Pelicans that he finally broke his playoff drought.
Still, despite the shocking lack of success, Cousins made the most of his Kings tenure. He averaged 21.1 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 1.2 blocks per game on 45.9% shooting. To this day, he has a case for being one of the best centers in recent Kings’ history.
It wasn’t until Cousins was 26 that he found out just how much better life was on other items. In his time with the Pelicans, Warriors, Nuggets, and Clippers, he saw more team success than any of his years with the Kings and he finally understood just how rough the situation was for his first seven years in the league.
Sadly, injuries derailed DeMarcus’ career and he was never able to return to his All-Star form. He has not yet formally retired from professional basketball but Cousins has already resigned himself to returning to the NBA. At this point, he’s out of time to make a championship run.
Whether you love or hate the 4x All-Star, you can’t blame him for not getting it done with the Kings. He did his part and he gave everything he had to give his team a chance. In the end, it just wasn’t enough to make a difference, and he could do nothing but watch in disappointment as the Kings fell into the lottery season after season.
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