DeMarcus Cousins clarifies comments on Kings' picks, off-season

DeMarcus Cousins clarified his comments on Sacramento’s 2016 NBA draft.

Your teams on the go or at home. Personalize SI with our new App. Install on iOS or Android.

DeMarcus Cousins has clarified his comments about the Kings’ draft night, according to The Vertical.

The Kings traded the No. 8 overall pick to the Phoenix Suns for the 13th and 28th picks before selecting Greek center Georgios Papagiannis and former Kentucky center Skal Labissiere. The team already has Cousins along with forward Willie Cauley-Stein and center Kosta Koufos on the roster.

In two separate cases, Cousins appeared to question the team’s draft decisions—but the big man says he was misunderstood. 

​

On drat night, Cousins tweeted, “Lord give me the strength” with the praying hands emoji, but later told reporters that he was referring to his pottery class at the moment.

Earlier this week, Cousins stoked further controversy when he seemed to express uncertainty about Sacramento’s strategy. 

“I do my job,” Cousins said at the time. “I don’t really understand what’s going on. I just control what I control. I let them do their job.”

• Follow all of Sports Illustrated’s coverage from the Rio Olympics here

He later said that he supported the team’s decision to add Arron Afflalo, Matt Barnes, Garrett Temple and Anthony Tolliver. He told The Vertical he was disappointed over the coverage of his “my job” comments.

“I’m trying to figure out what I said wrong. Of course, they’ve twisted it into something negative, in some type of way,” Cousins told The Vertical. “I’m clueless. It’s to the point now, where I don’t want to say anything about any situation. Then I’ll be the bad guy about that as well. Anything I do. Anything I do, it’s … it’s whatever, man.”

Cousins is preparing for his first Olympics with Team USA. He is coming off a season in which he averaged a career-high 26.9 points and 11.5 rebounds per game.