Photos tell a thousand words — and this screengrab of DeMarcus Cousins explains two very important words he uttered Monday night to get him tossed against Utah at halftime. It’s all there, but maybe best expressed by head coach Keith Smart. He’s the embodiment of a coach helped and trapped at the same time by his best player, and also of a guy just a few seconds too late to stop Cousins.
The Sacramento Bee’s Jason Jones had the first word on what got Cousins ejected, and it wasn’t pretty, or in any way surprising given Cousins’ on-court behavior before. Cousins entered Monday night tied with Kobe Bryant, Matt Barnes, Carmelo Anthony and Blake Griffin with nine apiece, according to the NBA’s record keepers. This was his 11th after an earlier T.
Cousins said he told the ref not to act like a “bleeping female” to get his second tech.
— JasonJones (@mr_jasonjones) February 5, 2013
According to Jones’ Sulia string after the game, Cousins defended himself by saying he complied with protocol — until he got frustrated and copped to calling the referee “an effing female.”
“Before that, (the referees) tell us if you have a problem with them, come talk to them. They give us permission to do that. I tried to wait until the play was over. I waited until the play stopped, I went up to the ref…he kept telling me, ‘Don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me, I don’t want to talk to you.’ So I waited until halftime. He said the same thing…he was saying, ‘Don’t talk to me.’ So my response was, ‘You don’t have to act like an effing female.’ I shouldn’t have said that. That’s about it.”
Cousins has been suspended three times this season either by the Sacramento Kings or the NBA. In one of those, Smart didn’t want Cousins’ suspension to be cut short, yet the Kings’ best player was playing just one game later because team ownership lifted the punishment. Is a fourth coming soon after his outburst against officials Tre Mattox and Scott Foster, an “insult” made worse because it was uttered in a league with a female official? In a numbers game, Cousins is an absolute beast: only two other players beside Cousins average at least 19 points and 11 rebounds per 36 minutes (Tim Duncan and Kevin Love) and it’s because he’s an undisputed competitor. It’s a double-edged sword, however: Cousins doesn’t appear able to shake a perceived slight. It happened when he confronted Sean Elliott and O.J. Mayo in separate incidents this season.
What do you think?
Follow Andrew on Twitter at @AndrewGreif.
Follow Dime on Twitter at @DimeMag.
Become a fan of Dime Magazine on Facebook HERE.
