DeMarcus Cousins suited up Monday for just his third game back in the NBA after missing all of last season with a torn ACL. The problem is that it didn't last long.
Three is the magic number as the Houston Rockets center only lasted three minutes in a 113-100 loss to the Dallas Mavericks. It was vintage Cousins with his love-hate relationship with league officials that lead to his ejection.
Cousins hit two birds with one stone after picking up his first technical early in the second quarter for jawing Mavs center Willie Cauley-Stein. He then gave Cauley-Stein a little shove after.
Just a little bit later, Cousins picked up his second technical for protesting a non-call, a common occurrence in the past when Cousins thinks he is fouled.
There wasn't any clear audible on the incident but the quick whistle indicates that profanity was involved.
Was it the right call?
All of NBA and fans alike already have a preconditioned bias against Cousins. He's been snubbed on All Star votings and not classified as a good big man because of these issues.Cousins is a big man who often picks up fouls so he also knows when the same is done to him. Is this a case of officials carrying out the same bias in a longstanding beef with Cousins?
We hate to accuse but if Cousins was yelling profanities, the second technical foul was warranted. But if there indeed was an uncalled foul on Cousins, officials should also be sanctioned for doing a bad job.
Vintage Boogie
Cousins has been highly temperamental through the years that biases are as common as his breakdowns. He even went out as far as saying he got a technical foul in 2017 for saying "Good job, referee."Bias or not, the record books will forever have Cousins as a perennial league leader in technical fouls. If Cousins is making efforts to lessen that but still accrue a high number of T's, then the referees should improve in their job as well.
Maybe the referees just missed giving Cousins a technical which is why they turned a blind eye. If not, then Cousins is indeed wrong.
Regardless, the headline will be Boogie getting ejected three minutes into the third game of his NBA return.
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