Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins was dealt a two game suspension Sunday for “aggressively confronting” a TV sports analyst after his team’s 97-86 loss to the Spurs on Friday night.
According to the San Antonio Express-News , the incident stemmed from Cousins “talking trash” Tim Duncan during the game’s fourth quarter.
Spurs Nation writes:
“After overpowering Duncan for two baskets and drawing a shooting foul on the Spurs star with about five minutes left, Cousins bellowed to his teammates on the Kings’ bench after drawing a shooting foul on the future Hall of Famer.”
Spurs broadcaster Sean Elliott paraphrased Cousins as saying, “I’m going to bust his (expletive).”
After Cousins’ smack talk session was finished, Duncan blocked Cousins’ shot and proceeded to score on the young Kings star multiple times in a row.
Elliot decided to comment on the proceedings by saying:
“That’s why some humility is in order. You think you’re dominating Tim Duncan, you get it stuffed right back in your face. Timmy doesn’t like to talk trash. But, if guys start talking mess to him, he’s going to respond. All that trash talking was premature. I’m not about to let these guys off the hook. Young ball clubs…should learn from this. Don’t start talking and flapping your gums against one of the greatest players ever. He’s going to make you pay. Tell me who got the best of this exchange.”
After the game, Cousins was made aware of Elliot’s comments and proceeded to call the Spurs broadcaster immature and later went to the court to confront him.
The “heated” exchange ended up costing Cousin $70,500 in lost salary as well as a two-game ban from the NBA.
Cousins will sit out games at the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday and at home against Portland on Tuesday.
“Any little mark is gonna knock you all the way back down again,” said Kings coach Keith Smart, addressing the Cousins-Elliot altercation. “So you’ve got to stay one step ahead and be perfect, with everything that goes on. You’ve got to be a man now and accept what’s happening. And then we’ve got to move on. But understand that everything you do until you are this person that we believe you can become, you have to do things perfect, because when you make mistakes they affect not just you but it affects our entire team.”
Listen in as DeMarcus Cousins responds to negative comments made by Spurs broadcaster Sean Elliot in the video below: