It’s been a rough go for DeMarcus Cousins lately.
But the frustrations that come along with an Achilles injury, a torn left quad, and a torn ACL don’t give any man the permission to say, or do, what’s been alleged of Cousins.
“I’m gonna make sure I put a bullet in your f**king head,” is what Cousins allegedly said on a phone call to the mother of his son that was released by TMZ.
To be clear, it sounds exactly like Cousins on the recording.
According to reports, the argument stemmed from Cousins wanting his son in attendance at his wedding that took place this past weekend in Atlanta. Christy West, Cousin’s ex-girlfriend and his son’s mother, recorded the conversation a day before the wedding.
“I’m gonna ask you this one more time before I take it to another level,” says the man on the phone. “Can I have my son here, please?”
West responds, “No,” which leads to the alleged threat of “I’m gonna make sure I put a bullet in your f**king head.”
West has filed court documents in Alabama hoping to get a restraining order against Cousins, along with going to the police department in Mobile, Alabama to file a report. She also has claimed that Cousins told her that he was going to kill her, “even if he didn’t have to get his hands dirty doing it.” She also claimed that Cousins choked her in the past.
Ironically, it was TMZ that caught up with former NBA star Matt Barnes after he attended the wedding.
“He’s (Cousins) been through a lot of late, so I’m happy to see him smile, be able to take his mind off his injury and enjoy his day,” said Barnes.
Back in April, it was TMZ that once again released the audio of a domestic violence dispute involving an athlete. Tyreek Hill of the Kansas City Chiefs was taped by his fiancée, Crystal Espinal, in a heated conversation about the health of their son and his broken arm.
Espinal: “He is terrified of you. And you say that he respects you, but it’s not respect.”
Hill: “He respects me.”
Espinal: “He is terrified of you.”
Hill: “You need to be terrified of me, too, b*tch. That’s why you can’t keep a f*cking man.”
Espinal: “He started crying and you were like, ‘Shut up, shut up, stop crying, stop crying.'”
Hill: “Right.”
Espinal: “And then he kept crying because he was scared. He’s terrified. You grabbed onto him somehow or he fell? One of the two.”
Hill: “I didn’t do nothing.”
Espinal: “Then why does he say, ‘Daddy did it.’? Why?”
Hill: “He says Daddy does a lot of things.”
Espinal: “A 3-year-old is not going to lie about what happened to his arm.”
Hill was temporarily suspended from all team activities but was not suspended by the league due to them not finding any evidence that he violated the personal conduct policy.
Now the focus will be on NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and the Los Angeles Lakers to see how they’ll handle this. Cousins signed a one-year deal with the team back in July before he recently tore his ACL, and can easily be cut. But as this story develops, it will be Silver who has the final say in how this is handled.
With the NFL and NBA being the two most popular sports leagues in this country, they’ve been opposites in the way they’ve handled off-the-court incidents, with the NBA being in the public’s good graces due to the NFL’s continued lack of social awareness.
If that is to continue, and these allegations against Cousins are true, it will be up to Silver to properly address such a delicate and private situation.
