https://twitter.com/teamziller/status/819152824692928512
DeMarcus Cousins is a complicated and fascinating individual. Blessed with transcendent talent and a track record of personal success, somehow he’s failed to have any team success with the Sacramento Kings. That, combined with a his oft-prickly personality, has caused him to have fraught relationships with members of both the Kings organization and the local sports media.
Those two conflicts came together on Tuesday night, when he was asked if he wants to stay in Sacramento and decided to turn the question around on reporters.
After quickly saying, “I love Sacramento, I want to be here,” he asked two reporters from the Sacramento Bee who have been critical of him, Ailene Voisin and Andy Furillo, if they want him in town.
Voisin hemmed and hawed, and eventually gave a “no comment,” while Furillo straight up said “no.” That should give you some idea of how tough Cousins has it in that locker room every night, although to be fair to Furillo, we wouldn’t want someone who bullied us and yelled in our face in town either.
Then again, Cousins was reacting to a perhaps-inappropriately reported story by Furillo, who has been grinding an axe against Cousins since before the notorious incident from earlier this year. It’s just a mess between Boogie and the Bee.
With Cousins reportedly negotiating a $200 million-plus extension to stay with the Kings through the 2022-23 extension (thus the question that set Cousins off), the question of whether he wants to stay in Sacramento is especially pertinent now. Cousins says he loves Sacramento, and it’s hard not to love a salary like that, but is it truly worth it to continue all the strife and turmoil he’s been through? Only he can answer that.