Deciding it was best to move on instead of signing him to a supermax long-term contract, the Sacramento Kings reportedly traded All-Star big man DeMarcus Cousins to the New Orleans Pelicans for Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway and a pair of picks.
With the trade, the Kings and Cousins end a long, dysfunctional relationship which became exacerbated at times due to the franchise’s decisions and the All-Star’s attitude. And while currently the trade seems like a clear loss for the Kings, the team’s play-by-play man Grant Napear is overjoyed by the deal.
Taking to Twitter to heavily criticize Couins, Napear called the trade a “no brainer†and said the “dark cloud†hanging over the Kings is finally gone.
Tell us how you really feel Grant!
As Ball Don’t Lie’s Kelly Dwyer pointed out, this isn’t the first time Napear has criticized Cousins. Back in 2013, Cousins confronted Napear after a game because the play-by-play man disparaged the Kings big man on his radio show.
Napear also criticized Cousins on his radio show last season. From a Celtics Blog forum:
“The Kings are gonna have another bad season this year, and in my opinion, he’s largely responsible for it. He’s largely responsible for it because his teammates just flat-out get sick of it. They don’t want to deal with it. He sucks the air out of the locker room. Disrespectful to your superiors, disrespectful to authoritative figures, it’s flat-out wrong. Now, I don’t know about you, okay – I’ve seen six years of it, and I’ve seen enough, okay? But I’m not – I don’t make the decisions about this organization. I have a talk show, and I announce the games. Alright? These decisions are way above my head. That’s not what I do.
“What I am saying, though, is – does this community want to move into a brand new, iconic, phenomenal building with a clean slate, or do they want the slate muddied before they even walk into the door? Does anyone think that DMC is not going to be doing the same stuff next year? Why would we think that after six years of immature, disgraceful, embarrassing behavior, that just because we’re moving into a new building, that everything’s gonna be fine and dandy?â€
Napear is clearly happy that Cousins is gone, but the way he expressed his jubilation likely will only motivate Cousins even more when the Pelicans play the Kings in the future.