On WednesdayFormer four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA player DeMarcus Cousins joined his former teammate Draymond Green on the popular Golden State Warriors podcast, “The Draymond Green Show.”
Before joining the Warriors, Cousins spent 6.5 seasons with our Kings, where he had his most productive years as a professional athlete. And during their podcast, he shared an interaction he had with his former mentor, Francisco Garcia (who spent 7.5 years with Sacramento), that really illustrates how far we’ve come as an organization.
“I remember my rookie season, there was this assignment. I don’t even remember what it was, but it was something simple,” Cousins recalled to Green.[But] in Kentucky… I had never done anything like it. Then I got to the Kings, and in my mind, it was [supposed to be] a notch higher. You know what I mean?
Regardless, Cousins mentioned this event to Garcia (his designated “veteran” at the time), and Garcia responded by telling him that he had simply been spoiled in college at a blue blood program like Kentucky. At the time, the Kings were the only NBA organization Garcia had ever known.
However, a few years later, Garcia was traded to the Houston Rockets, and the next time he saw Cousins, he was careful to correct himself.
“I remember the day I called you a spoiled brat,” Garcia told Cousins. “I was wrong.”
Cousins later said the Kings organization was a “shithole” when he was there and that it took Garcia going to a different environment to realize what a functioning organization looked like.
DeMarcus Cousins spoke about his time in Sacramento on The Draymond Green Show.
It tells the story of Francisco Garcia, his vet, who changed his perspective on the franchise after being traded.
There’s a lot of good stuff here. I thought it was an honest and insightful conversation. pic.twitter.com/RnbF55VEBn
— Brenden Nunes (@BrendenNunesNBA) August 20, 2024
To be fair, if you listen to the entire clip above, Cousins also blames himself for a lot of what went wrong during his time with the Kings. But it was still pretty cool to look back on that time knowing how much has changed.
The Kings of the last two years are not the same team that Cousins ruined for more than half a decade. The team averaged 47 wins per season in the two full years that Domantas Sabonis and De’Aaron Fox were able to play together.
These days, the Kings have become such a desirable place that one of the most respected players in the league (DeMar DeRozan) chose to come voluntarily for them this past offseason (remember, in sign-and-trades, the player must accept the trade for it to go through).
It is worth mentioning that the six-time All-Star and three-time All-NBA forward chose Sacramento despite interest from big-market teams like the Los Angeles Clippers and Miami Heat.
In addition to DeRozan’s voluntary arrival in Sacramento, reigning Sixth Man of the Year (6MOY) finalist Malik Monk (one of the best guard combos in basketball), suffered a significant pay cut just to stay with the Kings.
When Cousins said Sacramento was a shithole, while that statement was harsh, it was probably true. But now that statement doesn’t hold water, because they are one of the best organizations in the association.
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