DeMarcus Cousins is a classic case of an NBA star whose negative reputation hurt his career—in DMC's' case, it led to his retirement.
Boogie's lousy reputation can be traced to early in his career. While Cousins admitted he had problems early in his professional stint, he hasn't had any issues in recent years. Yet despite still being obviously an All-Star caliber player, DeMarcus didn't earn a roster spot in any of the NBA's 30 teams in the past two seasons.
Looking back, Cousins thinks that the media's creation of its own narratives about certain players had something to do with it. During his recent appearance on Dwight Howard's Above the Rim podcast, DeMarcus was asked whether the media's opinion mattered to him as much as that of his peers. Boogie surprisingly went off on ESPN's Brian Windhorst .
"If I walk into a room and LeBron James is in there, we could arguably say one of the greatest they ever touched a basketball, and he acknowledges me, that means way more than motherfu**** Brian Windhorst, chunky a** telling me I'm great. That's how I think about it," said Cousins.
DMC was elite at one point
Cousins was once the best center in the NBA - back-to-back All-NBA second-team selections in 2015 and 2016 and four straight All-Star appearances from 2015-18. However, after getting traded to the New Orleans Pelicans and subsequently suffering an Achilles injury there, his career went downhill even after successfully recovering from his setback.
It was in Sac-Town where Boogie often clashed with the media, particularly the Sacramento Bee after he didn't like how a reporter talked about his brother. Cousins ended up getting fined by the Kings, but that was just one of his several run-ins with that publication and one of the incidents that destroyed his good standing with the media. But in his latest rant, DeMarcus specifically targeted Windhorst.
"Mother fu***can't walk up a flight of stairs, he gets to determine what's great and what's not?" added Boogie. "And like I said, my peer can see my talent, my peer can respect my work."
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Why did Boogie target Windy?
It's unclear why Cousins went at Windhorst. As far as we can remember, the guy hasn't said much about the former Kings' superstar center. He did, however, shade DMC when the former Kentucky Wildcat signed with the Warriors.
"I wish the best for Boogie. I wish the best for the Warriors. But everybody just take a breath and calm down. They did not sign Wilt Chamberlain in his prime, they didn't even sign a healthy Wilt Chamberlain late in his career either," said once Windy.
Whether that was what triggered Cousins or not is still being determined. But you really can't blame DeMarcus for going off on whoever he is calling out. You can imagine his frustration over the last couple of years because the people who don't know about basketball portray him as a bad guy.
Related: “I can never really get the raw, honest truth” - DeMarcus Cousins still doesn't know why he’s not on an NBA roster
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