You often hear team employees share negative stories about key players after they’re traded, but they’re usually more subtle than this. Here’s Kings TV play-by-play man Grant Napear’s reaction to DeMarcus Cousins being traded to the New Orleans Pelicans.
Kings broadcaster rips DeMarcus Cousins for being a ‘dark cloud’ over the team
Grant Napear did not wait long to rip the now-former King.
Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports
Napear and Cousins have a history. In 2013, Cousins confronted Napear following a win against the Clippers, pounding the broadcast table before running away.
Napear has also criticized Cousins many times over the years, usually on his local radio show. Here’s what Napear said last March:
”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 flatout 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?
Napear won’t be the only Kings employee to speak out. If there’s anything we’ve learned about DeMarcus Cousins, it’s that he was a lot to handle even during good times. It will be fascinating to see if other current and former players, announcers, front-office executives, coaches, or other team personnel speak out with the same passion as Napear did.
Who won the Cousins trade? The Sixers.
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