Cousins quoted at FIBA

[King Baller]

Brian Mahoney: Classic U.S. moment: European journalist to DeMarcus Cousins: "Do you know where Slovenia is?" Cousins: "No, do you know where Alabama is?" Twitter @briancmahoney

 

[PurpleHaze]

HaHaHaHa... good one!

 

[Padrino]

haha!! that's quite awesome. as cousins continues to mature, reshape his image, and attract greater attention from the press, he's going to become a pull-quote machine. he's thoughtful, quick, and unafraid to say what he thinks. gotta love it.

 

[Gary]

Love Cousins, because I can guarantee the guy that was asking doesn't know where Alabama is. Maybe he knows the general area but I am sure Cousins would also know the general area too.

 

[The_Jamal]

Classic. This Team USA appearance for Cuz is absolutely what the doctored ordered for him to take that next step as a franchise player.

 

[HighFlyingMonkey]

Boogie is sharp and witty, I'd expect more burns like that in the future coming from him.

 

[The_Jamal]

haha!! that's quite awesome. as cousins continues to mature, reshape his image, and attract greater attention from the press, he's going to become a pull-quote machine. he's thoughtful, quick, and unafraid to say what he thinks. gotta love it.

What's great about it is that it's a classic "haha, look at this stupid American" trap questions that are asked all the time and Boogie fired right back at him.

 

[The Hammer]

This is great. You go Boogie.

Once Lebron is done, Boogie will be the King of the NBA with the personality he has. I'm not exaggerating. He was made for the media. He just had to learn some hard lessons about that whole game first. I think he's learned them. And the media is finally being a little more unbiased. You can't really trash a guy who's playing for country. Big no-no.

Once our team is up and rolling, we'll have one of the most likable superstars in recent memory. Just wait till the POSITIVE attention starts coming.

 

[kingsboi]

Reminds me of the time when I told someone I was from Bosnia and they proceed to say BOSTON?!

 

[bajaden]

Reminds me of the time when I told someone I was from Bosnia and they proceed to say BOSTON?!

Do you know where Boston is?

 

[mac]

What's great about it is that it's a classic "haha, look at this stupid American" trap questions that are asked all the time and Boogie fired right back at him.

Only... One is a country and the other (while still huge) is part of a country. A clever response nonetheless.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Only... One is a country and the other (while still huge) is part of a country. A clever response nonetheless.

To be fair, Slovenia has only been an independent nation a little longer than Cousins has been alive; "the one that's a country" was also part of another country, until just over twenty years ago. It's not like the reporter asked him did he know where France was.

FWIW, when I last had to sit through a history class, there was no such country as Slovenia.

 

[uolj]

Not addressed to any person or point in particular and not intended to make any particular point, but in case anyone was interested:

          |         Area | Population |          GDP
Slovenia: |  20,273 km^2 |  2,061,085 |  $49 billion
Alabama:  | 135,765 km^2 |  4,833,722 | $170 billion

via Wikipedia

 

[HighFlyingMonkey]

Only... One is a country and the other (while still huge) is part of a country. A clever response nonetheless.

Eh, the whole "is a country" and "is not a country" is rather arbitrary in this circumstance. It doesn't necessarily follow that because an entity is an independent nation-state that its more egregious to be unknowledgeable about it than another entity which is isn't a country.

For example, what would be worse, if a person hadn't heard of London before, or the country of Moldova? London's not a country, right?

In this case, Cousins was pretty spot on. Alabama is about as relevant to an average European as Slovenia is to the average American.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

I wonder what percentage of people who know where Slovenia is also know where Mauritius is?

 

[Sluggah]

love me a good burn. love me some DMC.

 

[Bricklayer]

Psst...big guy, rookie year your PG was Slovenian.

 

[Bricklayer]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...ending-question-about-slovenia-011913167.html

Not so much for the description of the event, which seems overblown, but for again as the article goes along a change in the Cousins narrative. This is what I've been nagging national writers about for the last year, and this NT bid I think has been really huge for Cuz in disarming the critics.

 

[Tetsujin]

What I like is that most of the response to Cuz's quote has been overwhelmingly positive as opposed to the usual "Look how mercurial Demarcus Cousins is! What a headcase!!!" drivel the national media usually applies to Boogie.

Our little baby is growing up!

 

[mac]

Eh, the whole "is a country" and "is not a country" is rather arbitrary in this circumstance. It doesn't necessarily follow that because an entity is an independent nation-state that its more egregious to be unknowledgeable about it than another entity which is isn't a country.

For example, what would be worse, if a person hadn't heard of London before, or the country of Moldova? London's not a country, right?

In this case, Cousins was pretty spot on. Alabama is about as relevant to an average European as Slovenia is to the average American.

That's a good point. I disagree however with your last statement. In the context, Cousins is not an "average American" and Slovenia isn't of equivalent significance to him as a team USA Player as Alabama would be to an average European. There are Slovenian players in the NBA, he's had Slovenian team mates and hes going to be facing the Slovenian national team.

 

[Tetsujin]

That's a good point. I disagree however with your last statement. In the context, Cousins is not an "average American" and Slovenia isn't of equivalent significance to him as a team USA Player as Alabama would be to an average European. There are Slovenian players in the NBA, he's had Slovenian team mates and hes going to be facing the Slovenian national team.

Well, you don't really need to know everything about your opponent to play your opponent. I mean, when the Kings play the OKC Thunder, it's not like the entire roster needs to look up Kevin Durant's address in the phonebook.

Just because Team USA is playing an opponent doesn't mean they need to read up on the opposing country's history, geography, and famous points of reference on Wikipedia.

 

[mac]

Well, you don't really need to know everything about your opponent to play your opponent. I mean, when the Kings play the OKC Thunder, it's not like the entire roster needs to look up Kevin Durant's address in the phonebook.

Just because Team USA is playing an opponent doesn't mean they need to read up on the opposing country's history, geography, and famous points of reference on Wikipedia.

Yeah they don't. It's not a requirement. But there's more reason for them to do so than for a real average European to look up where Alabama is. That's all I'm saying. We're also just talking bout geography... No need to exaggerate. Anyway, I'm just channeling my inner Slim and quibbling with HFM

 

[winston]

Boogie is beloved in the BBN , he still has camps in different area of Ky and is just a nice, funny, big kid. I met him getting a jersey signed for my sons and he just laughs and cuts up. There were some kids without jerseys and he got up himself and carried a box of Kings T-shirts, he signed and gave them away. It is lazy media, Goodman, Parrish, Forde, etc who continue to knock him

When he is in Lexington, he will stay at Calipari's home. JC said of all the players he has ever coached, DeMarcus is his wife's favorite. He said she would get after him if he was yelling too much at Cuz. I guess you all know Rod Strickland gave him the "Boogie" nickname.

Hope all this success takes him to another level. He is one of the best and should be an all-star and All NBA.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

Yeah they don't. It's not a requirement. But there's more reason for them to do so than for a real average European to look up where Alabama is. That's all I'm saying. We're also just talking bout geography... No need to exaggerate. Anyway, I'm just channeling my inner Slim and quibbling with HFM

Hey, let's not kid ourselves: there's no chance that that reporter wasn't being condescending. None. He wanted to catch an American player in a "gotcha" moment, so that he could post a story back in his home country, so that he and his countrymen could all have a good "Let's laugh at the ignorant American" moment. I'm sure that, if he'd asked Davis or Curry or the Humble MVP Derrick Rose™, they'd have all given a suitably bland, diplomatic answer. But, as most Kings Fans have learned, Cousins doesn't suffer fools, or stupid questions.

 

[Kingster]

Very nice parry, Cuz.

 

[Bosnian Diehard]

Reminds me of the time when I told someone I was from Bosnia and they proceed to say BOSTON?!

Happens to me all the time.

Sorry, this isn't witty. Alabama is a state and Slovenia is a country. Slovenia was at the World Cup and Alabama wasn't. Oh and most Americans couldn't locate Alabama on a map, either. There was a couple kids in my class who failed to locate the US on a map test.

 

[Bosnian Diehard]

Hey, let's not kid ourselves: there's no chance that that reporter wasn't being condescending. None. He wanted to catch an American player in a "gotcha" moment, so that he could post a story back in his home country, so that he and his countrymen could all have a good "Let's laugh at the ignorant American" moment. I'm sure that, if he'd asked Davis or Curry or the Humble MVP Derrick Rose™, they'd have all given a suitably bland, diplomatic answer. But, as most Kings Fans have learned, Cousins doesn't suffer fools, or stupid questions.

I don't think this was trying to catch an American. Many reporters from the ex-Yugoslavia region like to ask that to foreigners, don't know why though.

 

[uolj]

Sorry, this isn't witty. Alabama is a state and Slovenia is a country. Slovenia was at the World Cup and Alabama wasn't. Oh and most Americans couldn't locate Alabama on a map, either. There was a couple kids in my class who failed to locate the US on a map test.

Sure it was witty.

Even if the question was an honest one, it wasn't a serious one. So the not-so serious response was appropriate. (And if it was meant to be serious, then Cousins witty retort was appropriate to knock it down, because seriously why would a basketball player's knowledge of world geography be a serious issue?)

 

[Bricklayer]

Slovenia is pretty. People should know where it is, even if not for Beno. Just for scenes like this:

from an American perspective a silly little thing to call a country just because some barbarian king 1000 years ago said I control everything from that hill to that river, but all those little places at the foot of the Alps have very beautiful scenery.

 

[Mr. S£im Citrus]

... from an American perspective a silly little thing to call a country just because some barbarian king 1000 years ago said I control everything from that hill to that river...