DeMarcus Cousins was voted an All-Star starter for the first time in his career and appeared headed to the playoffs for the first time as well, as his Pelicans sit at 27-21, good for sixth in the West currently. Things couldn’t have been set up better for him to hit unrestricted free agency this summer before disaster struck on Friday night.
Cousins went down with a ruptured left Achilles that will force him to miss the remainder of the season. The injury is devastating for Cousins and the Pelicans for a variety of reasons. The Pelicans’ playoff hopes aren’t completely dashed, but it will take a Herculean effort from Anthony Davis to carry this team to the postseason without Cousins. For Cousins, he will not get a taste of playoff basketball and will go into the biggest summer of his career rehabbing an injury that has been one of the toughest to recover from for NBA stars over the years.
Well down the priority list of concerns about the Cousins injury is what happens to his spot on the All-Star team, as he was set to be part of the starting lineup for Team LeBron. NBA commissioner Adam Silver will make a decision regarding who gets that spot out of the Western Conference, and you would figure Paul George and Lou Williams will be near the top of the list considering they were thought to be the two biggest snubs out West.
Both Williams and George are having a tremendous season for their respective clubs and there was some backlash to both being left off of the team in the first place. George received support from teammate Russell Westbrook following his snub, comments that seemed to take a shot at Damian Lillard, while Williams took to Twitter to voice his displeasure. Now, LouWill is getting some support from his superstar teammate as Blake Griffin took to Twitter to push for Silver to pick Williams as Boogie’s replacement.
https://twitter.com/blakegriffin32/status/957339401935314944
We’ll find out soon enough who the NBA’s choice is, but in either case one of the two will feel left out once again. Whoever that is, you can be assured there will be more hurt feelings and anger from their teammates and fans when they find themselves on the outside looking in for a second time.
