It started with the slap. The intense Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins rivalry is clearly real, based on Boogie’s assertion that he would choke Gay for the slap and of course the vicious blow itself. These Sacramento Kings are in trouble, seeing as they’re already coming to blows with each other.
See for yourself the brutal incident in question:
Clearly this team is in turmoil already, and I’m sure that somehow it’s Vivek Ranadivé’s fault. Somehow. Or maybe George Karl‘s. Or maybe those two are just good friends who like to joke around. Nah, I’m sure it’s not the third option.
Anyway, their intense rivalry would come to a head in the Team USA Basketball Exhibition, one of the most intense contests I’ve ever seen and definitely not a game with no defense played whatsoever that was just to help select the 2016 Olympic team.
Gay and Cousins were on separate teams, no doubt due to the fact that the duo clearly don’t work as teammates and would’ve probably fought if on the same team. There was clearly revenge in the air for Boogie, who would eventually lead his white team to a 134-128 victory over Gay’s blue team.
Cousins played hard and ended with 24 points, eleven rebounds, three assists, three steals and no turnovers. He also managed to hit 50 percent of his shots from the field, despite taking (and missing) an astonishing six three-point attempts.
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It’s so obvious DeMarcus Cousins wanted to drain some threes to show his hated rival Rudy Gay that long-range shooting is nothing special, and that whatever Gay can do Cousins can do better. This bitter rivalry that is definitely not something I’m making up right now is getting serious.
Boogie’s mind games took a toll on Gay, who missed all three of his long-range attempts and made just four of his ten field goals throughout the game. He saw just under ten minutes of action, most likely to avoid a brawl starting based around he and Cousins’ troubled past.
Gay would end with nine points, three rebounds (two of which were offensive, surprisingly enough) and an assist. Which really isn’t bad at all in nine minutes of playing time.
Okay so there isn’t really a heated rivalry between Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins. I just needed to spice up this article a little bit, because outside of Boogie shooting all of those threes this just wasn’t that captivating of a basketball game to watch. These Gay and Cousins highlights are pretty fun, though:
Most players treated the scrimmage like a pure offensive showcase, except for Draymond Green (who dished ten assists) and Mason Plumlee (who had three steals and a block). Cousins especially seemed to play it loose, considering that in 22 and a half minutes he shot six threes.
To compare that to his NBA career, in his last two seasons Boogie played a combined 4311 minutes and shot a total of 15 long-range shots. So in the USA Basketball Exhibition Cousins shot a three every 3.75 minutes. In his last two NBA seasons, he shot one every 287.4 minutes, or about one per each nine games played.
So essentially, don’t expect to see any real Gay/Cousins rivalry or for Boogie to suddenly become the third splash brother, as the official Sacramento Kings twitter joked about on Thursday.
But do expect to see some sort of retaliation towards Rudy Gay for that slap. Almost certainly in prank form. Let’s not forget that Nik Stauskas received a little present from Gay, Cousins, and Reggie Evans at the end of last season:
I’m really hoping Boogie and some teammates have something like this for Gay, because that video is hilarious. Either way, the morale of these two Kings seems super high right now, which can only be good news for the upcoming season in Sacramento.
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