Fair or not, Sacramento Kings big man DeMarcus Cousins is a bit of a lightning rod for headlines. At some level, it stems from Cousins’ temperament on the court.
But this video of Boogie shoving a Madison Square Garden security guard has probably been overstated from the start. Granted, it wasn’t a mindless shove of the garden variety — you know, when two players/refs/etc. are simply in each other’s way. Cousins pushed the security guard away and then turned back to give him the Luigi death stare. There was some real intent behind that whole exchange, which began when a Knicks player needed to be separated from an official.
Then again, there are a million things that happen in the course of a game, and not all of them involve basketball. There’s shoving, there’s trash talking, there’s arguing. But they all are typically acts of the moment, most of which are forgotten minutes later. Cousins confirmed as much after the game.
“Actually, I think he was trying to remove me from talking to the refs, so he kind of put his hand on my back and tried to move me forward,” said Cousins (via the New York Daily News). “So, I don’t think it was that big of an issue, honestly.”
The NBA isn’t likely to take action on this and they shouldn’t. The security guard and Cousins had a “mild” disagreement on who should be where, but Cousins is a giant person, so he got the better of the exchange. Was it necessary? Not particularly, but there are dozens of instances like this one that take place all the time and, usually, nothing ever comes of them.
