DeMarcus Cousins helped save the Sacramento Kings from a bit of bad press Monday night.
Among the events the Kings had planned for their celebration of the Lunar New Year, which begins Monday, Feb. 8, was a T-shirt giveaway for their game against the Milwaukee Bucks, in which fans at Sleep Train Arena would receive black shirts adorned with a “Year of the Monkey” graphic to honor the holiday.
But when Cousins, who is sidelined with a sprained ankle, arrived at the arena and noticed the shirts, he astutely pointed out how the timing of the promotion could be seen as insensitive, given that Monday marked the beginning of Black History Month.
“I walk into the building and DeMarcus Cousins calls me over to an animated discussion he’s having with Kings operations people,” Bucks television analyst and former NBA player Marques Johnson wrote in a Facebook post Monday. “He ask me, ‘Olskool, what you think about this T Shirt? Told him a little insensitive on 1st day of Black History Month’. They pulled the shirts…”
As Johnson mentioned, the Kings heeded Cousins’ advice.
Of course, Sacramento didn’t intend any ill will with the promotion, as any insensitivity simply would have been the result of poor timing. Cousins might not have been the only person in the building to realize how the T-shirts could be misinterpreted, but he made the right decision by voicing his concerns.
“We all need a lesson in sensitivity,” Kings president Chris Granger said Monday, via The Sacramento Bee. “In an effort to celebrate Chinese New Year, we had some concerns about the T-shirt giveaway, so we pulled them all before the doors opened. Certainly we don’t want to offend anybody, and we acted as soon as we heard the concern.”
Thumbnail photo via Derick E. Hingle/USA TODAY Sports Images
