USA basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo says that DeMarcus Cousins is immature - NBA Update
Sacramento Kings centre DeMarcus Cousins didn’t agree with Team USA basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo, when he called (Cousins an immature) and decided to confront him.
Cousins, perhaps the only substantive centre in USA Select Team, attracted the criticism of his peers and Jerry after displaying a questionable show. For the first time USA Olympic squad
and Select Team played against each other on Friday. Cousins startled everyone with advertent fouls and trash language. He kept on complaining about the biasness of officials (towards Select Team) and was found shaking head and flipping hands out of sheer
tantrum.
By the end of the day USA basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo reaction was quiet fathomable, as he said that Cousins "has some growing up to do.”
However, Cousins after facing the media storm for three days, decided to confront Colangelo on Monday, and tried to clear the air between them.
"I asked him how I was being immature," Cousins said, after an afternoon practice session with Team USA. "He never really gave me an answer. He just said it was his opinion. I told him
I'm just trying to come out and play hard."
Cousins 21, is in the 2nd year of his professional career. On court he has established himself as an essential constituent for Kings’ chemistry, and 18.1 points
and 11 boards in last seasons’64 games is a testament of his skills.
Nevertheless, he still has to evolve mentally and has yet to learn the virtue of patience. Just 2-years down the line and there are reported feuds of him with the former Kings head
coach Paul Westphal, even Paul once reported that Cousins had asked him twice for a trade. Similarly Cousins have serious anger-management issues. At the moment he leads the league in technical fouls, 12 to be exact in just 2 seasons.
Keeping the aforementioned facts in mind Colangelo righteously pointed towards his weaknesses.
"He needs to mature as a person (and) as a player if he's going to have an outstanding NBA career,"
However, things went back to normal after Cousins met with Jerry.
“Everything’s cool,” Colangelo said when reached later in the day. “He wanted an explanation. I was trying to be more encouraging than anything else.”
DeMarcus said that the meeting helped him a lot, as he got the chance to present his narrative and clear the air.
Tags: