So, Cousins is throwing another coach under the bus heading out of town. How many have there been since he showed up? When will the Kings realize that Cousins is not the player to build a team around? He purports to be the team leader. Often he refers to the Kings as "his" team. If this is so, which I doubt, it is by his example the team should be led. Right? Absolutely. In my experience the hardest worker, the most engaged player, the first guy on the practice floor and the last guy off, the player who was always in impeccable shape, was the team's super-star. I do not argue that Cousins' is a super talented player and deserves a star by his name, but he is by no means a team leader, and I have yet to see him in all the years I've watched him with the Kings lead by example.
Instead, Cousins frown, grumbles, grimaces, whines, argues with referees, gets technicals, slouches, un-engaged on the bench when he's out of the game, disrupts the locker-room, blames coaches, and generally sucks the joy out of playing basketball. Were I playing today, I would throw myself over a cliff before I'd be a team mate of his.
Last night on the post game show, Grant Napier and Jerry Reynolds, undoubtedly two of the Kings most loyal supporters and long time Kings' broadcasters, had a lot to say about Cousins' leadership and recent performances, non of it complimentary. Doug Christie, one of the greatest King's defenders, diagrammed some of the defensive errors committed last night by the Kings, and particularly Cousins. Can it possibly be that Vlade doesn't see these glaring errors? How could he not? The problem is that he's going to attribute these mistakes to the coach and his staff, and I suppose he'd have a point. But not to see that Cousins' is as much responsible, if not more, to the recent disgusting performances of the Kings would be the darkest kind of blindness.
All the rage today around the NBA is talking about coaches who do not shy away from confronting their stars when they do something wrong. Perhaps George hasn't done that, in which case he's made his own bed and has to lie in it. Never having been in the King's locker room, I have no idea how George has dealt with the big Boogie, he who so far does not boogie but waddles.
Ah, well. So much for Cousins. But I'm terribly disappointed in Rajon Rando who was quoted in this morning's Bee about Coach Karl's possible firing, "I hope that's the case." Karl salvaged Rondo's career by giving him the green light to run the show, something Rondo claimed Carlyle of the Mavs, his previous team, didn't. There were not a lot of teams in the NBA interested in acquiring Rondo after he went on the big sulk, got fined, and was made persona non grata by the Mavs. End of career? It looked like it until the Kings came along. Rondo's words do not say much for his character, his sense of loyalty.
Here's a little poem about football in honor of the last game of the 2015/16 NFL season.
Is football playing
Along the river shore,
With lads to chase the leather,
Now I stand up no more.
A.E. Housman
