DeMarcus Cousins grabbed attention recently for an ugly encounter with a reporter in the locker room, which has forced the Sacramento Kings to take action.
Cousins, upset at Sacramento Bee columnist Andy Furillo for his coverage of an off-court incident involving Matt Barnes recently, had a bit of a standoff with the reporter in which he cursed him out. Fans can see the video of the incident here.
With the video now live, The Undefeated’s Marc J. Spears captured a statement from the Kings:
The Kings have a clear set of standards of conduct expected of our entire organization. As a result of negative interactions with certain members of the media that were not corrected after verbal warnings, we have decided to impose a substantial fine. If this behavior is repeated again we will be forced to consider further discipline.
Long story short, in detailing the incident with Barnes, Furillo brought up a prior off-court incident involving Cousins and his brother from this year—fair game from a contextual standpoint so readers are informed about all of Cousins’ happenings, not just the most recent.
Alas, Cousins took offense and has now paid the price. If lucky, the message gets through—there are plenty of ways to voice displeasure with coverage, but verbally attacking another person simply doing their job isn’t one of them.
Given the history between media and Cousins, though, something seems to suggest this isn’t the last incident.
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