Sacramento Kings: Top 5 Moments Of The Decade
As the decade comes to an end, we count down the five best on-court moments for the Sacramento Kings over the last ten years.
The amount of memorable on-court moments for the Sacramento Kings over the last decade is severely lacking. But the ones that they do have are pretty incredible.
Continuing our Decade In Review, we take a look back at the best moments from the last ten years.
#5. Cousins Ejection/Return
In late December of 2016, the Kings were hosting the Portland Trail Blazers when an event likely never seen before took place in the Golden 1 Center.
DeMarcus Cousins, who was in the midst of a 55-point scoring effort, was ejected with 35 seconds left. He had just gotten fouled on an and-1, began to taunt in the direction of the Blazers bench. When he got close enough, it appeared that Cousins spit his mouthpiece at the feet of the Portland players and assistant coaches.
He ran off the court upon the news of his disqualification, likely headed to smash a locker room trash can or two.
But less than a minute of real-time later, Cousins re-emerged after being summoned by the officials to return to the game. When questioned after the game, one of the officials told reporters that they initially thought that Cousins threw the mouthpiece into the stands. But upon further conversation, they came to the conclusion that the mouthpiece had simply fallen from his mouth in the direction of the Blazers bench.
The referees rescinded the ejection and felt that Cousins deserved to return to game action.
Cousins received a raucous ovation from the home crowd upon his return. He would knock down the free throw, block the ensuing Blazers shot, and the Kings would go on to secure a victory in what was one of the more odd finishes in NBA history.