Before playing overseas, former Sacramento Kings big DeMarcus Cousins was one of the top centers in the NBA. He was the fifth overall pick of the 2010 NBA Draft and played in Sactown for the first seven years of his professional career.
Despite putting up huge numbers, Cousins lost more games than he wanted to because the Sacramento Kings were a hot mess back then. He described his tenure as “tough and confusing” during his recent appearance on The Draymond Green Show, considering he came from the elite Kentucky men’s basketball program.
“I was coming from a situation in Kentucky where Cal treated us like pros. I remember in my rookie season it was a simple task and I remember Cisco (Francisco Garcia) saying something like ‘You really was spoiled at Kentucky.’ And in my head, I’m thinking ‘Damn maybe I was!’ Cousins said.
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“Long story short, Cisco ended up getting traded to the Rockets. And I remember when he went there, he ended up tapping in with me, and he was like ‘I remember that day I called you spoiled. I was wrong. We were in a sh*thole.’ I’m not here to sh*t on the Kings or anything like that. In sports, you have up and down years, I just so happened to come in at a point where it was down years,” he explained.
Why DeMarcus Cousins described the Sacramento Kings as a “sh*thole”
Before emerging as a perennial playoff contender in the Western Conference, the Sacramento Kings went 16 years without a playoff appearance, and DeMarcus Cousins experienced it firsthand.
Throughout Cousins’ stint in Sacramento, the team never won more than 33 regular season games in a single campaign, and it also didn’t help that he played for six different head coaches.
Despite this, DeMarcus Cousins earned four NBA All-Star appearances and two All-NBA Second Team selections. In 470 regular season games, the 34-year-old averaged 21.1 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.2 blocks per game on 45.9 percent shooting from the field.
