Cousins SUSPENDED! (merged)
- Thread starter UK_King
- Start date
I'm positive there are people who overheard and know exactly what was said. It's only a matter of time before it gets out. I don't understand why CD - who doesn't have to answer to any corporate big brother - didn't just come out and report it.
EDIT: I'm reading the most prominent Spurs forum and even a number of them think the whole thing is ridiculous. I did find one little gem, however. Apparently there's a rumor floating around that it was a Sacramento reporter who told Cousins what Elliot had said on the air. Nice. Pour on the gasoline, light the match and see what happens... I sure wish I knew which reporter.
EDIT: I'm reading the most prominent Spurs forum and even a number of them think the whole thing is ridiculous. I did find one little gem, however. Apparently there's a rumor floating around that it was a Sacramento reporter who told Cousins what Elliot had said on the air. Nice. Pour on the gasoline, light the match and see what happens... I sure wish I knew which reporter.
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HereWeBoogie
Hall of Famer
Ya this a great point. If anything crazy bad happened it would be out by now
Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
I wonder a little bit about Sean Elliot as "media". I don't know the local TV situation in San Antonio, but for instance with the Kings and many teams around the league, the local broadcasters are as much PR people for the home team as they are any sort of media. Jerry Reynolds is even officially part of the Kings front office. Maybe Elliot is truly independednt hired by the TV channel and not beholden to the Spurs except obviously having left his heart, and many would say brains, in San Antonio. But on the other hand, if the Spurs are essentially his employers...would that change anything? Its Game 6 of the WCF and you have your announcer say somehting about the other team's star player, the other team's star player reacts and challenges him. Your announcer claims media privilege + protection and gets the star player banned from Game 7? Wouldn't any special media consideration have to flow to independent sources and not just opposing teams' PR men? Players get into it with opposing coaches and assitant coaches all the time for instance.
I ask these questions again because we jsut don't know. I don't think there has ever been a similar suspension handed down to provide a rationale.
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Arco Arena
Bench
If you think verbal threats can never be serious please go into a Walmart and tell the cashier that you're going to come back with a gun and shoot them in the face.
Not saying he said that, but it shows that certain specific verbal threats can be quite serious. So we can't really make a judgement on the fairness/unfairness of the suspension until we know exactly what was said/how it was said. And as of now, we don't, besides the 2nd-hand accounts saying that it was serious.
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L
LWP777
Guest
Rookie
Starter
I agree punching Donte was unacceptable.
The rest are all BS if you're trying to paint Cuz as a bad person. Immature yes but bad NO! But overall I'd seen him grown a lot since drafting. Players should of confronted Westfail a lot earlier IMO...too bad Evans doesn't have that kind of fire in his heart. Can't be a leader if you accept everything thrown at you IMO.
If confronting someone you disagree with makes you a bad person than by all mean I'm bad as well. Was it smart? No for one simple reason, the league has an eye on him. Was it wrong? hell NO. Announcers have the right to critique but players also have the right to defend if they so desire..verbally of course.
I have no problem Cuz confronting Elliot. But knowing how well Cuz communication skill is vs Elliot an announcer, I think Cuz got the bad end of the deal. Probably lost his temper and went on a yelling contest. Didn't he know that confronting someone verbally would cost him 2 games suspension? I mean didn't he get that in the memo? We fans knew that a long time ago right?
thinking about it...I bet someone will try to defend their point of view from what I said...don't do it...it's bad to confront people you disagree with. It's immature to do so!
The rest are all BS if you're trying to paint Cuz as a bad person. Immature yes but bad NO! But overall I'd seen him grown a lot since drafting. Players should of confronted Westfail a lot earlier IMO...too bad Evans doesn't have that kind of fire in his heart. Can't be a leader if you accept everything thrown at you IMO.
If confronting someone you disagree with makes you a bad person than by all mean I'm bad as well. Was it smart? No for one simple reason, the league has an eye on him. Was it wrong? hell NO. Announcers have the right to critique but players also have the right to defend if they so desire..verbally of course.
I have no problem Cuz confronting Elliot. But knowing how well Cuz communication skill is vs Elliot an announcer, I think Cuz got the bad end of the deal. Probably lost his temper and went on a yelling contest. Didn't he know that confronting someone verbally would cost him 2 games suspension? I mean didn't he get that in the memo? We fans knew that a long time ago right?
thinking about it...I bet someone will try to defend their point of view from what I said...don't do it...it's bad to confront people you disagree with. It's immature to do so!
Well, for one it's pretty silly for Cuz to even get into it with an announcer of all people. Here's the thing, if Cousins wants people to stop calling him immature, all he has to do is stop acting immature. Stop getting technicals every few games, stop whining and pouting all the time and just go and put up all-star numbers. Seriously, what good will confronting Elliott possibly do? Is it just a matter of self pride and ego?
Anyway there are 2 issues at hand here: whether Cuz was dumb to go confront Elliott and whether whatever he did warranted a 2 game suspension, given that no contact was involved.
Fear the Putin
Starter
http://blogs.sacbee.com/sports/king...association-appealing-cousins-suspension.html
gahhhh...why couldn't you file this appeal prior to the lakers game?
I guess they announced the suspension fairly close to the start of the game, but they should give players ample time to file an appeal and not miss any games.
gahhhh...why couldn't you file this appeal prior to the lakers game?
I guess they announced the suspension fairly close to the start of the game, but they should give players ample time to file an appeal and not miss any games.
Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
In a way might work out better for us...although not necessarily for a Kings fan down in Lakerland.
In any case, tonight's game is more winnable than the Lakers game was. Who knows where Cousins' head will be of course. Must be a broiling sort of place making it hard to focus on the task at hand.
HereWeBoogie
Hall of Famer
well lets all hope the appeal goes through, today before the game. gonna need him against this Portland team
Fear the Putin
Starter
In a way might work out better for us...although not necessarily for a Kings fan down in Lakerland.
In any case, tonight's game is more winnable than the Lakers game was. Who knows where Cousins' head will be of course. Must be a broiling sort of place making it hard to focus on the task at hand.
lakerland AND fantasyland
Circa_1985_Fan
All-Star
Isn't that next to Toon Town?
KingsFanSince85
All-Star
Just curious, when is the other party involved ever held accountable with you? Aren't they just as immature for being involved? As everyone keeps stating, nobody knows the total extent of what occurred. Perhaps Elliott was equally as wrong as you believe Cousins to be? I've read accounts on Spurs forums that Elliott went totally overboard with his criticism toward Cousins. Same logic applies in these other examples yet nobody seems to be taking the other party to task. Apparently Cousins is the only one that is expected to be above these things.
Oddly, I have yet to see Cousins stomp on someone's head as they lay helplessly on the floor yet he is vilified and criticized more harshly for being overly animated and for the things he says. Some people have a wacky set of morals.
HndsmCelt
Hall of Famer
I long ago abandoned any hope of parity in the way the NBA hands down it's punishments. Too many times I have seen 2 players do the exact same thing and receive different punishments. DeMarcus pulled a bone head move by confronting Elliot on the court, the yahoo who told DeMarcus what Elliot said was a bigger bonehead and Elliot was being a shameless homer for supposing that one blocked shot was a lesson to the guy who pushed his hero around the court like a rag doll most of the night. Make all the lists of bad behavior for DC you want but I will tell you this: DeMarcus has not even come close to any of the on court bad behavior that the league has seen from numerous players many of whom are NOT considered problem children. He is no Ron Artest, or Rasheed Wallace he is not even another Bruce Bowen (insert High Karate add here) He is just a big immature emotional player who feels he is not given his due by many in the media and the league.
This is kind of where I stand too. I feel like people feel Cousins should respond a certain way, and when he doesn't do what they expect he is demonized. As far as I am concerned he can do as many boneheaded/foolish things as he wants and as long as he isn't breaking the rules I don't think he should be penalized. Sure, waiting to confront a radio guy is silly but I didn't think it was against any rules. Being emotional sure isn't against the rules, but he will probably always be penalized for it in some way whether it be no respect from refs or zero tolerance from the NBA officials. Unfortunate for us, more unfortunate for him.
I listened to C-Dave on his show this morning. I'm still not entirely convinced that the confrontation was suspension worthy. I get that it wasn't a friendly chat at all. And yes Cousins should never have left the locker room. Still for me, a nasty confrontation does not equal an elbow to the throat in punishment. Just fine the guy and give him the appropriate lectures on acting mature.
I also heard from Sam Amick that part of the players association's argument is that there were very few witnesses and they were all Spurs TV crew who provided input to the league on the incident. So the league didn't exactly get any unbiased witness reports. These are the same guys that do over the top homerism for a living. And no I don't think they can separate themselves from what they do.
I also detected from some of this media response a definite "butt-hurt" tone. They like their license to rip players if they feel the need. They consider as long as the player is cashing a big check, then it's all fair game to take free shots. And they get a lot of backing from all directions to be able to exercise that freedom. If they are allowed to tell it like it is when it comes to the team, then us consumers are certainly allowed from time to time to tell them they need to check themselves.
I also heard from Sam Amick that part of the players association's argument is that there were very few witnesses and they were all Spurs TV crew who provided input to the league on the incident. So the league didn't exactly get any unbiased witness reports. These are the same guys that do over the top homerism for a living. And no I don't think they can separate themselves from what they do.
I also detected from some of this media response a definite "butt-hurt" tone. They like their license to rip players if they feel the need. They consider as long as the player is cashing a big check, then it's all fair game to take free shots. And they get a lot of backing from all directions to be able to exercise that freedom. If they are allowed to tell it like it is when it comes to the team, then us consumers are certainly allowed from time to time to tell them they need to check themselves.
bajaden
Hall of Famer
Its right next to Wally World!
bajaden
Hall of Famer
The problem with this entire thing is, we don't really know what happened, and apparently were not going to be told. All we know is that the report says it was a hostile confrontation. Whatever that means. Obviously they had a heated conversation, but unles Cousins threatened Elliot with bodily harm, I see no need for a suspension. When in this country did it become illegal to disagree with someone, other than a referee. Was it a stupid move by Cuz? Yeah, probably! Everything he does is looked at under a microscope, and then enlarged beyond lifesize. He knows that, and so he has to fight the impulse born of emotion.
Of course its easy for me, and everyone else not named Cousins to say that. We don't live in the fishbowl that he lives in. As someone on twitter said, it was reported that Cousins just spilled a cup of coffee in the clubhouse, thats got to be worth a one game suspension. Everything he does is exaggerated. He's costantly criticized for complaining to refs, or for his facial expressions. Have any of you paid any attention to Duncan's facial expressions when he thinks he's the victum of a bad call. How about Pau Gasol? We act like Cousins is somehow unique in his actions. Watch some other NBA games and you'll ba amazed how many players become dramatic when they object to a call.
But we're talking about Cousins aren't we? So it has to be worse doesn't it? Look, there's no doubt that he's brought a lot of this on himself over the last 5 or so years. He came to us with a reputation. I get that. And we keep saying that he needs to grow up. To aquire some maturity. Gee, I wish I knew where that store was when I was 22 years old. Here's the thing, by saying that he needs to become more mature, were acknowledging that to a large extent, he's not! So maybe the press should exercise some maturity when writing about him instead of looking for a whipping boy. Perhaps the Kings orginization should exercise some matuity in dealing with him.
I don't blame Smart for dodging questions about the issue. He's developed a good working relationship with Cousins, and the last thing he wants to do is lose his trust. But where the hell is Petrie? We've heard narry a peep from him. Or anyone in the orginization. Is the orginization wearing blinders? As stated above, the only witnesses were from the Spurs broadcast team. Where were the Kings security personal. So far, the only comment from the Kings orginization is no comment! What a wonderful mess!
Padrino
All-Star
since he was drafted, how many articles have been published about demarcus cousins' potential, his ability to become a once-in-a-generation center? and how many have been published about his "issues"? i guarantee you that the disparity leans heavily towards the latter. the league is getting smaller, and demarcus stands out as one of the best young big men in the game, yet nobody seems to care. its almost as if those who cover the league are rooting for demarcus to fail. i find it hard to blame cousins for feeling as if the world is against him. those who are paying attention can see that he quite literally gets mauled under the basket game in and game out. he gets the occasional whistle for his effort, but when every little bit of contact he commits on the other side of the court earns a whistle, it certainly seems like a rather stacked deck he's forced to contend with. in the nba, you must earn respect. the same will be true of demarcus, but i find it fascinating how ready and willing so many sacramento kings fans are to turn on their franchise center. seems a shame, to me...
Darn. My poor fantasy team!
Agent23
Starter
It seems like a trend to me. They turned on C-Webb. They turned on Kevin Martin. They turned on Tyreke Evans. It was just a matter of time before they turned on Demarcus Cousins.
The other party is held accountable when he isn't an NBA player critical to his team who is risking getting fined or suspended. We all know what Elliott said, and frankly I think what he said was stupid and ridiculous. Trash talk is a part of the game. But that's that, let it go, let him be the idiot. Why does Cuz need to go and confront him about it? Why not just put up 40/20 on Duncan the next time we play the Spurs? What's the result of it all? Elliott says a stupid thing, we all know that he's a stupid homer, and Cuz gets suspended for 2 games that likely costs the team 2 games, and ends up just making himself look even worse in the public's eye.
Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Much like the rumor I saw on a Spurs forum that said it was a reporter that told Cousins about what Elliott had said, thus basically pouring the gasoline and tossing the match...
What I believe is that Sean Elliot did not actually feel threatened by anything that Cousins said, and that I would not have determined whatever he said to have been a legitimate threat, worthy of a suspension. And I think it's obvious that we, as individuals, have different perspectives as to what rises to the level of a threat, in the first place.
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