Cousins: Season went downhill after illness; 'there's no stopping me'

If you watch DeMarcus Cousins closely, you come to realize he's a pretty astute observer of his surroundings. His rebuttal to a classless, five-year-old tweet by a FOX columnist this season is one example.

This year, as the Sacramento Kings' season crumbled around Cousins' diagnosis of viral meningitis and the subsequent firing of coach Mike Malone, the sense was palpable that the franchise big man was not a happy camper. 

In a feature by Michael Lee of the Washington Post, Cousins opens up about the season in purgatory and pinpoints the problems to just that.

I'm still wondering how in the hell did I get viral meningitis. Where did it come from? I was like, this is going to get bad. And it did get bad. And it was just downhill from there.

With Cousins on the shelf due to the illness, the Kings went 2-7. That led to the dismissal of Malone, the first NBA coach that the No. 5 pick in the 2010 draft had truly connected with. 

Yet Cousins says his attempts to make the best of the situation were dampened when media reports claimed he was opposed to the hiring of veteran coach George Karl – something he vehemently denies. 

I felt like a line was crossed and I was trying to figure out how I'm going to deal with it. I've come to the conclusion that I’m in Sacramento. And not to sound arrogant, but what's bigger than my name in Sacramento? It could be a damn forest fire in Sacramento, my name will come up. 'It was near DeMarcus Cousins' house!'

As he alluded to following the Karl rumors with his "marathon continues" remarks, Cousins summarizes that he feels he has gone through adversity this year for a reason. 

At the end of the day, it's just going to make me a stronger person. I know I'm going to reach success, some type of way, because that’s just me. That's what I do ... I'm going through these hard days now, because when my time comes, there's no stopping me.