It was shades of the old Boogie. Heat of the moment, the whistle didn’t go his way and DeMarcus Cousins proceeded to dropkick a stack of towels on his way to the bench late in the second quarter of Denver’s Game 4 win over Golden State on Sunday. The act, a rarity for Cousins these days, earned him a $15,000 fine.
That was Sacramento’s Cousins. Maybe New Orleans’s Cousins. Nowadays there is still the occasional blowup—an argument with teammate Will Barton during Game 2 quickly went viral—but Cousins claims to have mellowed in recent years. Having the game nearly taken from you will do that. Four years ago Cousins was at the peak of his powers, an All-Star with the Pelicans, a towering teammate of Anthony Davis on track to earn a max contract with New Orleans. Then he tore his Achilles tendon. A year later it was his quad. Then his left ACL came apart. The money disappeared. Interest from teams dried up. A player once considered one of the NBA’s best centers struggled to earn 10-day contracts.
