Kings Blog and Q&A

News, observations and reader questions about the Sacramento Kings and the NBA.

January 1, 2012
Cousins told to stay home tonight

No one was happy after Saturday night's 114-92 loss to the Knicks - not the Kings players, not coach Paul Westphal and certainly not the fans.

We're not quite sure what happened after The Bee's Jason Jones, Ailene Voisin and Matthew Kawahara left Power Balance Pavilion on Saturday night, but The Kings issued this interesting statement from Westphal at 3:21 p.m. today:

STATEMENT FROM KINGS HEAD COACH PAUL WESTPHAL

"Whenever a new season begins, in any sport, there is great hope that everything will progress in only a steady, upward direction. As we all know, it seldom happens like that in this life!
"As coaches, we can only ask that our players do everything they can to improve themselves as individuals and teammates. If they do this with all their hearts, we live with the results.
"Everything that happens on a team does not become known to the public. This is how it should be. However, when a player continually, aggressively, lets it be known that he is unwilling/unable to embrace traveling in the same direction as his team, it cannot be ignored indefinitely.
"DeMarcus Cousins has demanded to be traded. In the best interest of our team as we go forward, he has been directed by me, with the support of management, to stay home from the New Orleans game tonight."

According to Cousins' agent, John Greig, Cousins never asked to be traded.

Come back for updates throughout the afternoon as this story develops.
-Tom Couzens

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