DeMarcus Cousins delivers Twitter burn 5 years in the making

Dan Devine
·Senior NBA writer
DeMarcus Cousins smiles. (Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)
DeMarcus Cousins smiles. (Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)

You'd forgive DeMarcus Cousins if he woke up Friday feeling a little salty. The Sacramento Kings center once again found himself on the outside looking in when the roster of coach-selected reserves for the 2014-15 NBA All-Star Game were announced Thursday, joining Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard as the most notable omissions from the midseason exhibition — notable even among NBAstars — despite ranking sixth in the NBA in scoring (23.8 points per game), third in rebounding (12.3 rebounds per game) and sixth in Player Efficiency Rating (25.2, miles above the league average of 15) to go with markedly improved defensive work and standing as pretty much the sole bulwark against the Kings once again being one of the very worst teams in the NBA. (Cousins' snub was erased later Friday, when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver named him as the injury replacement for Kobe Bryant on the Western Conference All-Star team.)

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But rather than stewing over what some termed a robbery, Boogie woke up smiling. That's because he had an anniversary to celebrate:

Yep, it's been five long years since Clay Travis — formerly of AOL FanHouse, Deadspin and CBS Sports, a former contributor to Yahoo Sports, and currently of FOX Sports — tweeted that Cousins, then starring as a freshman for John Calipari's Kentucky Wildcats, was bound for a troubled future:

This was an irresponsible and ridiculous statement to make even at the time, because it was based on, well, nothing. The sum total of Cousins' transgressions at that point consisted of a suspension during his sophomore year of high school for a physical altercation with a bus driver (in which Cousins said he was defending himself), allegations that he'd been improperly recruited by the next school he attended, some on-court outbursts of emotion aimed at referees, and some bouts of bickering with Calipari.

That's it — a penchant for technicals, for arguing, for not demurring in the way that college kids are expected to in the face of authority figures and legendary coaches, rather than anything in the way of off-court trouble or disciplinary action. (That legendary coach, by the way, continues to swear by Cousins, calling him his "son" just as he does with fellow UK products like John Wall and Anthony Davis.)

It's been more of the same at the pro level, as Cousins' clashes — with former coach Paul Westphal, with other players, with referees, with announcers, with Team USA brass (though those differences were eventually resolved) and so on — often drew more coverage and interest than the fact that he was becoming a star, a leader and a player/person worth treating (and paying) like a franchise cornerstone ... and, of course, that he's never actually gotten into any trouble off the court.

With the anniversary approaching, Drew Franklin of Kentucky Sports Radio pulled Travis' card:

... and whether Boogie already had the date circled or just saw this and said, "Oh, right," he decided to have a wonderful bit of fun with it.

Rather than cop to having been irresponsible and 100 percent wrong, Travis smirked into the skid:

... which, of course, does nothing to show any sort of remorse for having been so blindly, blatantly off-base back then. Oh, well. Being small is its own punishment, I suppose, while living well — and calling out nonsense in the process — is pretty damn good revenge.

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Dan Devine is an editor for Ball Don't Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at devine@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter!

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