DeMarcus Cousins is one of the most interesting men in sports right now. Whether it’s his personal (and mostly justified) crusade against one particular newspaper, or just his history of on-court behavior intertwined with inarguable basketball genius, Boogie is practically must-watch TV.
That continued Tuesday night, as Cousins carried the Kings with a 55-point performance hours after the Kings levied a $50,000 fine against him for his recent outbursts. That would be a great story on its own, of course, but it gets even better. As Cousins scored his 54th point late in the fourth quarter, all hell broke loose:
PEAK BOOGIE: DeMarcus Cousins scores 54th point, spits mouthguard, gets ejected, sprints to locker room, gets un-ejected! (full sequence) pic.twitter.com/kNQ7TRQCOs
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) December 21, 2016
That tweet nails the timeline. Did he accidentally spit out the mouthpiece? Sure, that’s possible. Did that accident occur while he was attempting to jaw at the Blazers bench? Probably, yes. Still, Cousins had just taken Mason Plumlee to the hole for the and-1, breaking a 119-119 tie with seconds left in the game. Every player in the league would be pumped in that situation. In any case, here’s another look at the mouthguard-spit, with some postgame analysis from NBA TV:
Officials eventually rescinded the technical, and Cousins was summoned back to the floor. The Kings held on to win, 126-121, and afterwards Boogie stepped to the mic for a post-game interview:
they cut his mic!! pic.twitter.com/lqIbYMVERv
— James Herbert (@outsidethenba) December 21, 2016
He was still quite unhappy, and CSN Bay Area was taking no chances; you can still hear the background noise from the arena, but that microphone cut out completely. It’s certainly possible that was by accident, but it’s more likely producers had no interest in taking chances with a hot Boogie on a hot mic.
Not to advocate censorship, but that may have been a prudent decision for the company.
As a viewer, though? Let the man rant!
