The Sacramento Kings suffered an absolutely miserable 99-60 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night. The situation grew even more tense following the game, when rumors of a locker room altercation involving Kings center DeMarcus Cousins began to swirl.
Jason Jones, the Kings beat writer for the Sacramento Bee, was present in the locker room after the game and took to Twitter in an attempt to set the record straight about exactly what happened. Here is his take, via several of his Tweets on Saturday night:
Here's the locker room "incident" with Cousins (and then I'll get back to writing my game story):
Cousins was getting dressed and there was a cameraman standing in front of him and Cousins asked could he not point the camera at him while he changed. The cameraman said the camera was off, and Cousins said he still [didn't] want [a] camera on him.
Cameraman's reply: "Whatever."
Cousins basically said, I don't care, keep the camera off me. As cameraman leaves he makes a remark about making sure the camera was off next time he was in there. Cousins asks "what did he say" and stands up. Isaiah Thomas grabbed Cousins by his sweatshirt to say calm down.
At no point did Cousins try to go after the cameraman. Cousins then gathered his belongings and left the locker room.
Then said cameraman came to media room to talk about Crazy DMC, not mentioning that he did egg on DMC some with last comment.
But no, DMC DID NOT go after him, chase him, etc. Looks/sounds much worse than it was. Used some bad language, which he can't do In that situation w/ cameras around and such, but trust me, I was there. It's much ado about nothing. If Cousins ignores 2nd comment there is nothing to talk about. Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.
Jones added the following regarding his take on the situation:
Could DMC have ignore him? Yes. But he's still sick, agitated over the loss and the cameraman wasn't exactly trying to calm things down.
BTW I've seen MUCH worse with reporters/cameramen/athletes in NFL locker rooms. Never gets reported. DMC's rep hurts him in these situations.
This was not a Ryan Leaf-type incident with DMC and camerman. DMC never raised his voice or even got near the guy.
It is certainly not a good thing that Cousins is developing such a reputation as a mercurial hothead that even local cameramen are attempting to get a rise out of him in the interest of potentially salacious footage. But it is a very good thing that Jones was there and able to clarify exactly what went down.
To discuss the Kings, check out Sactown Royalty. To talk about the Mavs, head on over to Mavs Moneyball.