What was said in that article that was untrue? And, trust me, the GM's around the league viewed him as a cancer long before this feud with the Bee.
The whole piece is incredibly tendentious.
I'm not a native speaker, so my feel for the english language might be a bit off, but I think this is truly embarassing for the Bee and gutter journalism at it's worst.
"The last thing DeMarcus Cousins needs is another apologist"
How many apologist did Cousins have over the years? Calipari, Coach K and?
DMC has been trashed by the media year in and year out, but the Bee wants to convey the impression, that countless people constantly apologize or downplay his behaviour. This might be true for KingsFans.com. This isn't true for the rest of the world, where DMC is painted as the enfant terrible of the league.
"and bullied his coaches and his teammates without shame."
Did I miss something? Where is the prove, that DMC has bullied teammates or coaches? And more so, where is the prove he has done it on purpose and without shame? He has thrown a temper tantrum at Karl. But in my mind bullying is something else.
"But in Kings coach Dave Joerger, it appears he has found another short-sighted defender, who seems inclined to let Cousins off with a slap on the wrist, rather than mete out appropriate punishment."
So his coach, the person who works with him every day, judges the situation differentely, but this of course means he is shortsighted and afraid to properly punish DMC? At the moment we don't know, how the Kings will punish DMC. Why not wait until we know something, before we act as if coach Joerger is a short sighted apologist?
"immature 26-year-old man who hasn’t yet learned how to be the leader his team so desperately needs."
Only because it's common sense it doesn't make the painting of a 26 year old professional athlete, who is one of the best in his business, as an immature man-kid any more warranted. Every man or woman, who ever tried to achieve something in sports, knows what amount of discipline and dedication is necessary to reach the top. Sport is one of the things, that requires total dedication, because nearly every life choice will have an impact on your performance. It's about countless repititions, eating right, sleeping right, resting right (which in case of NBA player should be a huge issue). So a person like DMC, who is able to get better year in and year out, constantly adding to his game, is immature?
That's just pure hyperbole. Emotional to a fault? Yes! No problem with that. But being emotional doesn't mean immature.
And yet, last Monday, Cousins – all 6 feet, 11 inches of him – decided it was a good idea to try to intimidate Furillo
Oh boy. Let's act like the hostile giant was close to killing our poor little reporter. Please..it's not Cousins fault, that he is 6'11. Would this whole thing even be that big of a deal, if we would be talking about 5'3 Mugsy Bogues? When a 6'11 giant sizes you up and curses at you, it sure is intimidating, but it's still just someone throwing a few profanitys at you and not a dangerous situation at all for gods sake. Cousins didn't even touch him and all he was wearing was a towel. Big deal right?
We understand Joerger’s desire to build rapport with Cousins, given that so many other coaches lost their jobs for failing to do so, but that doesn’t mean he has to be a pushover.
Again they are painting Joergers rational decision to view things differentely, than the Bee as solely motivated by fear of failing to bond with DMC. So many coaches lost their job, failing to do so? Which? Westphal? Ok....
But other than Westphal? Coaches in SAC lost their job, because they were bad coaches or because they managed to lose the whole team and not DMC. DMC was always coachable. Every guy following the Kings, noticed the changes in his game, once a new coach arrived. Unlike Lebron, who is in a position of power, Cousins accepts coaching. So in the end this paragraph is simply unproved defamation by the Bee and therefore unprofessional as hell.
Note that I don't downplay Cousins behaviour. It was unwarranted and dumb. But it's not that big of a deal the Bee tries to make it into, to justify their pathetic bias, when it comes to DMC, who has been called out for being fat, unprofessional, immature and a few other things, by them without much prove. That's just bad journalism or not journalism at all.
If you want to accuse a professional athlete of being fat and out of shape, come up with something to prove it. Come up with his body fat percentage or his lactate values.
If you want to call him a bully, come up with the quotes or at least some named sources.
