DeMarcus Cousins was freed from basketball purgatory Sunday night, as the Sacramento Kings traded him to the New Orleans Pelicans for Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway and a future first- and second-round draft pick. The rumors began to swirl during the All-Star Game and were confirmed afterward.
When Cousins did his postgame media session, nothing was official. But did this public relations person whisper the news into his ear before questions started?
https://twitter.com/manny_vieites/status/833546633715576835
The PR guy says, “All-Star questions first” then says something to Cousins. People thought this was when Cousins found out he was traded, but there’s just no way that can be — the timing doesn’t match up. This media session was happening well before the trade was confirmed by reporters. Also, this would be the worst PR’ing in PR history if this is when you decide to inform a player that he has been traded.
Here’s the transcript of the conversation.
DeMarcus Cousins' full post-game comments on New Orleans, Anthony Davis, trade rumors (before confirmed trade): "I love it here" pic.twitter.com/N3zc65gP1t
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) February 20, 2017
It’s actually bad PR’ing either way, as this is not the place to let a player know trade rumors began to fly during a game. Tweets began surfacing during the game, and any good PR person would have told Cousins questions would be coming as he walked off the court. A good PR rule is ABC — Always Be Checking… Twitter.
Plus, there are a dozen reporters within a foot of this conversation. They would have heard the news.
This was the beginning of the end for Cousins. But it’s highly unlikely this was the moment he found out and no one else heard and he kept it together and this is how the news would be broken anyway.
