Colangelo praises DeMarcus Cousins after World Cup success
There will always be mentions of DeMarcus Cousins's on-court temper, maturity and demeanor, but the 24-year-old shook off some of that talk with a career year in 2013-14 that saw him average 22.7 points, 11.7 rebounds, 2.9, assists, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks.
He then made the U.S. team for the FIBA World Cup, enjoyed a solid tournament and helped change the course of the gold-medal game after coming off the bench in the first quarter.
“The first five minutes of tonight’s game, they knocked us back. Cousins really, I think, turned the game around. I don’t only think; I know," American coach Mike Krzyzewski said after the championship game, via The Sacramento Bee.
"Watching (him), I’m saying, ‘Whoa,’ we just made another stop, or he just made another stop. He knocked the ball off the rim and they didn’t score. (Nenad) Krstic wasn’t able to score because he bodied up on him.”
Given his success over the last year, albeit mostly for a poor Kings team, Cousins seems poised for another big season and another step towards NBA superstardom in 2014-15.
To do that, he'll have to continue to put the on-court issues behind him, and USA Basketball Chairman Jerry Colangelo believes the big man can do just that.
“You can use all the superlatives you want and apply them to DeMarcus," Colangelo told Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee.
"He made the team, made a major contribution, made tremendous strides. In the locker room after our win over Serbia (earned an automatic berth to the Rio Games), DeMarcus in particular was emotional. He hugged me and thanked me for putting him on the team, and I told him, ‘the past is the past. This is the beginning of your career. Take everything you learned back to Sacramento. You can build on this and have a tremendous career.’"
For what it's worth, while Cousins did finish tied for the league lead in technical fouls with 16, so did Kevin Durant and Blake Griffin, and few believe either of those All-NBA talents need to tone it down at all.
Cousins is already producing at All-Star levels. At this point the only thing missing is team success, which he can't completely control.