A look back at Boogie’s bad luck

If it wasn’t for bad luck, DeMarcus Cousins wouldn’t have any luck at all. A series of bad beats worthy of a Scott Van Pelt highlight turned the four-time NBA All-Star and one of the most beloved players of the John Calipari era into a veteran-minimum journeyman, and it has been painful to watch.

More than a decade ago, Kentucky Sports Radio held an online poll to give DeMarcus Cousins a nickname. The four choices were Carl, Big Cuz, Big Marc, and Silverback. After the options were announced, Matt Jones told the story of DeMarcus putting his arm around him and saying that if “Carl” won, he’d take it out on him (in the most loving, DeMarcus Cousins way possible, of course). No doubt a floppy-haired Matt Jones spent the next few days hitting the refresh button on the poll with his crossed fingers. 

In hindsight, maybe this disdain for the “Carl” option in that random KSR poll preconditioned Cousins to dislike future NBA coach, George Karl. But maybe not.

To Matt’s relief, when the votes were counted, Big Cuz was the moniker that shimmied its way to the top, and to this day, Cuz is listed as one of DeMarcus’s nicknames on his Basketball-Reference page. 

However, it was then UK Assistant Rod Strickland that coined the nickname that would become a household NBA name: Boogie. The way Cousins tells it:

“I would be playing ball and I would do moves that guards would do and coach Strickland said, ‘Man, you got a lot of Boogie.’ Every time I walked into the gym he would say, ‘What’s up Boogie!’ and it just stuck.”

As fortuitous as he may have been to have an actual cool nickname bestowed upon him his freshman year of college (unlike the rest of us), his NBA career has been riddled with horrendous bad luck. 

What has transpired to lose him tens of millions of dollars in income, making him appear like the Boogieman to so many casual NBA fans instead of the fun-loving Boogie that UK fans love? And where does he go from here after putting up a playoff career-high in points with Denver in his final game of the season?

With the 5^th pick in the 2010 draft, a dumpster fire selects DeMarcus Cousins

It wasn’t all craps and whammies after Cousins was first selected by the Sacramento Kings with the fifth overall pick in the 2010 draft, but he wasn’t exactly jackpots and royal flushes either. After an up-and-down first few years, Cousins signed a four-year, $65 million max rookie extension to stay in Sacramento, where he immediately put up back-to-back Second Team All-NBA seasons and began a streak of four consecutive All-Star bids.

Cousins spent seven seasons in total with the Kings and racked up insane numbers. He ranks in the top six in franchise history in points, rebounds, steals, and blocks, while leading the organization in career rebounding percentage and usage percentage. He also leads the Kings in career turnovers, but you know, Boogie gonna Boogie. 

The amount of individual success he had is more impressive considering he accomplished this in the middle of a collapsing infrastructure. During his Sacramento tenure, he went through seven coaches, three general managers, and two owners. That might be one of the reasons the Kings have the longest playoff drought in NBA history, currently sitting at 15 years and counting.

Coaching carousels in the NBA can be harsher than the carousels at the Hillbilly Days carnival, but seven head coaches in seven years is just ridiculous.

The carousel came to a harsh halt when the Kings hired the aforementioned head coach with a dislikable last name, George Karl. He and Boogie were a match made in Hell as the veteran coach and the exploding star butted heads from the start. 

When it became evident the two could not co-exist and Boogie would be taking his talents out of Sac-Town when he hit free agency, the Kings traded him to the New Orleans Pelicans for Buddy Hield and a couple of half-drank hurricanes from Bourbon Street. 

Luck wasn’t even on his side when the news broke, as he discovered he was being traded to the Pelicans during a press conference. Clueless until a team representative came over and whispered the truth in his ear like a game of telephone, the emotional defeat on his face was captured live on video. 

But the good news was he got out just as he was becoming eligible for his next big contract, the same time the Wizards awarded his buddy, John Wall, the supermax extension of $171 million for four years. Boogie wasn’t eligible for that much, but a nine-figure payday was surely on the horizon as he entered unrestricted free agency as one of the best big men in the league.

Injuries on injuries on injuries

Unfortunately, Boogie’s path to New Orleans must have been on a very cracked sidewalk under a bunch of ladders with herds of black cats darting in front of him the entire time. On January 26, 2018, with only 34 games left in the regular season before he became an unrestricted free agent, Cousins tore his Achilles.

DeMarcus hadn’t exactly been the Cal Ripken of basketball during his career, but he wasn’t Mark Pryor either. He had only missed more than 20 games in a season once and that was due to an unlucky acquisition of viral meningitis. 

The Achilles rupture couldn’t have come at a worse time. Instead of getting Scrooge McDuck wealthy like his college running mate, he had to find a team willing to let him rehab with them most of the year for the veteran minimum. 

Insert some slight good fortune: The team who agreed to this deal was the Golden State Warriors in the midst of their dynasty run.

Cousins finally hit the floor for his new team 357 days after his injury and played formidably, averaging over 16 points and eight rebounds. Not bad, considering he had to share the rock with the two best shooters in NBA history and some guy named Kevin Durant.

But like his mama probably told him many times, this is why we can’t have nice things. During a hustle play in the first round of the playoffs, Cousins tore his quad and missed the next six weeks. He made it back for a few Finals games but was clearly not 100%. 

Thanks in part to Boogie’s ill-timed injury, the Warriors would go on to lose in the Finals to the Raptors, thwarting Cousins of the championship he craved so badly.

Cousins stayed in California the next season and signed with the Lakers for the veteran minimum once again, having just come off two major leg injuries. But as any Eastern Kentucky grandma will tell you, bad things come in threes. While working out in Vegas before the start of the season, Cousins tore his ACL, essentially ending any chance of ever returning to this former glory.

The Lakers had to cut him near the end of the season due to roster juggling, though they allowed him to remain with the team to work out. That ended when the pandemic hit and the NBA was forced to finish the season at the most magical place on Earth, where the Lakers would go on to win the Disney bubble title.

Reasonable minds could disagree if Cousins deserved a ring for this championship considering he never played a minute for the Lake Show, but Jeanie Buss acknowledged Cousins’ behind-the-scenes contributions. However, instead of a public presentation she promised, she mailed his ring to him a year later. No word on whether or not it was shaped like Micky Mouse.

So, after missing essentially two full seasons with major leg injuries, the once perineal All-Star was doomed to a life of a journeyman at the age of 29, when many players are in their prime.

This is the part of Boogie’s career when Kentucky fans got a little excited. He signed with the Houston Rockets and rejoined his college brother, John Wall, who was coming off a debilitating injury of his own.

Unfortunately, this reunion was more like that of the bad sitcom coming back 20 years later for a one-night special rather than a great movie sequel, and while good for some Kentucky nostalgia, the two never clicked with James Harden and the Rockets released Cousins midway through the season.

From there, Cousins turned into the scrappy player perpetually seeking his next 10-day contract. He fell on with the Clippers last year and after a few games with the Bucks, finished this season off strong with the Nuggets.

What’s crazy is that his numbers post-ACL tear haven’t been so bad that he deserved to be treated like the geek from Nightmare Alley. He’s averaged nine points and six rebounds in just 16 minutes per game. In the era of NBA teams flushing money down the drain on the likes of Davis Bertans, who averaged a little over five points and two rebounds per game for this $16 million per year contract, you would think Cousins would be better appreciated.

But unfortunately, the geek from Nightmare Alley is as equally accurate of hyperbole as it is incredibly frustrating and undeserved. A washed-up, once-great showman down on his luck and forced to squabble for whatever job he can at any circus that will pay him.

The unfair bad rep

As much as we might want to block this fact out, injuries aren’t the only reason teams have been shy about emptying their pockets for Boogie’s services. Every year in which he hasn’t been riddled with injuries including this rookie season, Cousins has ranked in the top 10 in the league in technical fouls, taking the top spot in this infamous category in 2013.

Part of the reason refs are quick to T-up Big Cuz is that he possesses an unfortunate combination of size, aggressive play, and exaggerated facial expressions. While some people can be accused of wearing their emotions on their sleeve, DeMarcus wears his emotions on both sleeves, his pant legs, his hat, and he would probably still have enough left over to wear on extra-long coat tails if those were things anyone actually wore.

These temper-driven tirades have led to $350,000 in fines and lost wages due to suspensions over his career, which is unlucky because many of these were self-perpetuating penalties. Here is a breakdown of how things seemed to escalate quickly:

Cousins gets a bad foul called on him and lets the ref know about his displeasure. This leads to a technical foul. Rinse and repeat a few times and now refs know he is tech-prone and are quick to ring him up the next time, almost as if they are looking for him to react. Other players like Chris Paul see he has a reputation for being quick-tempered and lean into it, egging him on. This unfair treatment gets him more frustrated and leads to more technical fouls which ultimately extenuates his reputation. It’s a vicious downward spiral.

But as visibly frustrated as he gets about a petty foul call, he laughs equally rambunctiously. He even puts on his own comedy show called Boogie’s Comedy Slam.

And as outwardly annoyed as he might get with a coach who he doesn’t feel gives him the respect he deserves, he will give 10-fold that amount of loyalty and love to those close to him. He even has a clothing line called Loyalty is Love. 

Cousins has been accused of lots of things, but being stoic is not one of them. It’s just unfortunate that the negative emotional attributes seem to have outweighed his positive ones when it comes to public perception. If only NBA teams and the average viewer didn’t gravitate to the pessimistic side of looking at him, they might see what UK fans and Sacramento fans saw.

How do you not love a guy who, after getting new uniforms, says, “’We got black jerseys. We scare people now. We’re more intimidating. Can’t scare nobody with purple, running on the court looking majestic.”

On his last trip to Sacramento as a member of the Nuggets, “We love Boogie” signs flooded the arena, and he could walk into any bar in Lexington and never pay for a drink. He connects with people like very few players have the ability to do.

DeMarcus summed it up nicely in a way only he could when he said, “For those that are gracious to my career, I appreciate you. But the rest of them, you know what it is. Middle finger to you.”

What could have been

With all his bad luck and poor timing, it’s hard not to look back and imagine what Cousins’ career might have looked like had a few ping pong balls bounced differently. He hypothesized on it as well, wondering what would have happened had he not worked out for the Kings (something he insinuated was an option), and instead been drafted by the Warriors at #6, who took another center of not quite the same caliber, Ekpe Udoh.

A prime Boogie paired up with a prime Steph Curry in a stable franchise would have no doubt led to more rings in his showcase than the lone Micky Mouse version that got sent to him via FedEx and many deem undeserved.

But even if we don’t re-invent the 2010 draft, there was an avenue for success in Sacramento. Head Coach Mike Malone was starting to show some success during the 2014-2015 season after a rough first year, but was fired after just 24 games with an 11-13 record. However, most of these losses came when Cousins was out with viral meningitis. With Boogie on the floor, the Kings were 9-6. 

Malone went on to be the head coach at Denver where he has led them to a winning record in five consecutive seasons. You think DeMarcus doesn’t think about that? He does:

“I thought [the Kings] were insane [for firing Mike Malone], and it shows. You don’t even really have to speak on it, because what I knew then about Mike, I knew he would soar. He went to the next place and has been nothing but successful. When he was with us [in Sacramento], he was successful. Still doesn’t make sense and it never will. Everything else that happened to Sac should have never happened. That guy should have never been fired. We would’ve been winning. We would’ve won. Probably would have finished my career there along with Mike. Simple as that.”

By, “Everything else that happened in Sac,” Cousins is referring to his tumultuous relationship with George Karl, who came in right after Malone, and led to his ultimate departure from the franchise that drafted him.

Let’s not throw too big of a pity party for Boogie. The man has made close to $100 million playing basketball and will likely make several million more, but it’s hard not to stop and anguish at what a talent and personality like his could have been if not for a crappy organization, ill-timed injuries, and an unfairly bad reputation. 

So, what’s next?

Mike Malone is still going to be the coach of the Denver Nuggets next season, and he shares a unique relationship with Cousins. The way Boogie puts it: 

“Mike doesn’t buy into the reputation s—. We’ve stayed in touch since our first time being player and coach in Sacramento. Every time I had a mishap or a little bump in the road, I heard from Mike every single time. If I got cut, I got traded, I got injured, I heard from Mike. If he ended up making an accomplishment or whatever the case may be, he heard from me, as simple as that. And that’s just a real, genuine relationship.”

Of course, MVP Nikola Jokić is also going to be with the Nuggets next season as well, and as good as Cousins can still be, he’s not taking the Joker’s minutes and will be relegated to a background role sort of like a Gotham henchman. It will be interesting to see if he is comfortable in that position or if he wants to pull a Harley Quinn and get out from behind the Joker to be the star of his own show somewhere else.

Either way, hopefully he shows that he’s not the villain all too many people make him out to be.