Golden State Warriors center DeMarcus Cousins recently joined Chris Haynes' "Posted Up" podcast, where he described some of the worst things that fans have shouted at him during his NBA career.
Fan interactions at NBA games have become a much larger topic of discussion in recent weeks, after the Utah Jazz permanently banned two fans for separate incidents involving OKC's All Star point guard Russell Westbrook.
Cousins explained to Haynes (H/T Yahoo Sports):
"Oh, I've been called n----r. And it's crazy because this has happened to me on a few occasions. I reported it to the league, and, you know, I may have said whatever I said back and I was still punished for it. But obviously it became a bigger issue when it was Russ [Westbrook], and he was still fined for it. I don't really understand it. We're the product. We push this league, so I don't understand. When does our safety, when does it become important?"
When asked which cities in particular, Cousins didn't pinpoint any specific location, but Yahoo Sports's reports at least one of the incidents occurred in Sacramento.
“I don’t really want to [name cities or teams], because I’m not really trying to put a label on an entire fan base,” Cousins told Yahoo Sports. “There are ignorant individuals in every city. I’ll just put it like that. … [The league] tells you to ignore it, or whatever the case may be, but how many times am I supposed to ignore that. Me coming from where I come from [Mobile, Alabama], they lucky all they got was a response.”
Cousins also reflected on the time he was fined $25,000 in 2017 (when he was still a member of the Kings) for flipping off Warriors fans at Sacramento's Golden 1 Center and yelling, "Fuck Golden State!"
Per Yahoo Sports:
“It’s crazy. I remember the whole incident with the whole ‘F--- Golden State’ thing,” Cousins told Yahoo Sports. “I remember specifically those fans talking crazy to me the entire game, and then I come out the game and it’s those same exact fans. And I knew they were Golden State fans, so I said what I said. I talked to the league. I’m like, ‘Such and such and such was said. I was getting called bitches and all this other stuff, punk boys, whatever.’ But they was like, ‘All right, but you flipped them off.’ I’m pretty sure them dudes are still enjoying games [today]. So it’s like I’m the bad guy because I react?”
You can check out Boogie's full discussion with Haynes via the link in the tweet embedded below.