DeMarcus Cousins should learn from Rasheed Wallace

0
1270

DeMarcus Cousins has been playing at a very high level and has proven himself as a dominant player in the league. His play has improved ever since he entered the NBA, from getting better on defense to adding a consistent three-point shot to his game. How to stop him? FORGET ABOUT IT. DeMarcus Cousins’ play has been stellar and he’s arguably the best center in the game today.

Cousins Career Stats
Cousins’s career stats via ESPN.com

However, even with all of the accolades, his game is often overlooked because of his continuous antics. We hear Cousins’s name discussed with a lot of things that don’t necessarily pertain to his game on the court.

Cousins Antics
This is just a glimpse of a few incidents…

Whether arguing with his coach,  cursing out his teammates, or getting continuous technical fouls that lead to ejections, Cousins demonstrative actions don’t seem to be quieting any soon. With 9 ejections and 75 technical fouls for his career, I just hope someone pulls him to the side and shows him a quick synopsis of Rasheed Wallace’s career.

Rasheed Wallace
AP Photo

If you don’t know or recognize that name, I suggest you YouTube it. Amongst those YouTube videos you may see some highlight compilations, but you will definitely see a lot of “trash-talking, ball don’t lie, ejection” videos as well.

Rasheed Wallace was a very talented player that did more than his fair share on the court. He was a true stretch four that could hit the outside shot but still give you work in the paint as well as defend post-ups very well. The 2004 NBA champion had a solid career and helped out a bunch of teams, including that 2004 Detroit Pistons team, but the unfortunate thing is that most people only remember the demonstrative actions. Wallace leads the league in all-time player technical fouls and he also holds the record for most technical fouls in a season with 41 during the 2000-2001 season. Mind-boggling numbers when you truly think about it. In only 80 games played, he averaged a technical foul every other game. Good thing the 16 technical foul rule was introduced then, but it quickly came after in the 2006-2007 season.

Even after his career ended, things didn’t change. In a summer men’s league, Rasheed Wallace is still talking trash and getting technical fouls. Some things don’t change.

With DeMarcus, this is one of those situations where you have to learn from the mistakes of others. Because of how Wallace behaved himself, there was a perception about him that had nothing to do with the game of basketball, and Cousins doesn’t want that reputation. He is a great player that is playing unstoppable basketball at the moment, but his name keeps popping up in headlines that have nothing to do with how he’s playing. It doesn’t help that his team isn’t playing the best right now, but with patience and the right moves from management, they will be right where they want to be behind the dominance of Cousins. I hope for his sake that he doesn’t continue down this “Rasheed Wallace” trail of recklessness.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here