mmmmm... i love quality longform writing. it's such a rarity in sports journalism these days. actually, it's a rarity in most journalism in the online age, i suppose, which is a tremendous shame, given the opportunities that new technologies afford us.
anyway, arnovitz's piece is quite thoughtful and about as fair as you can imagine from an outsider who isn't aiming for the ugly, snarky middle of digital discourse. cousins and the kings have failed mightily in the last seven years because each needed the other to be a greater stabilizing force than they possibly could be. cousins was too young, and he needed the kind of mentoring, discipline, and structure that the kings couldn't offer with more pressing franchise concerns to manage. and the kings were embroiled in far too much upheaval to properly attend to the growth and maturation of their budding but temperamental superstar. it was a match made in nba hell, you might say, a perfect storm of superstar volatility and franchise instability.
that said, if demarcus cousins is going to remain in sacramento, then coach joerger must be given the time to build on his partnership with big cuz, and vlade must learn on the job very quickly, and vivek must learn to stay the f*** out of the way. as a fan, it's difficult to maintain long-term positivity in light of the challenges the kings must overcome at all levels of the organization, but maybe... just maybe... there's an honest-to-goodness "turn the corner" moment somewhere in this team's future...