DeMarcus Cousins trade

For most of last week, the national sports media slammed the Sacramento Kings for trading the man-child otherwise known as DeMarcus Cousins.

Arguably the best big man in the NBA, and easily the Kings’ best player, Cousins’ trade to the New Orleans Pelicans was a move the Kings had to make and should have made long ago.

Four teams passed on Cousins before the Kings drafted him in 2010 and that reality was still in play last week.

So what happened in the Cousins trade was the acknowledgment that Cousins as “The Franchise” was never going to work.

Not only was it never going to work, but Cousins had depleted his own market value to the extent that the Kings were never, ever going to get value in return for him.

But to their credit, the Kings chose not to embrace an even scarier proposition more years of losing seasons while Cousins put up big numbers.

Did the Kings badly bobble the PR ball after Cousins was traded? Did the Serbian-born Divac shoot himself in the foot when he said he had better deal for Cousins when in fact he meant in his halting English that he had discussed deals that potentially could have been better but were never consummated? Also lost in the overheated commentary was the fact that the type of plodding, physical basketball that the Kings played with Cousins is out of style in an NBA ruled by speed and fluidity of movement.

Late last week, Cousins reportedly called Divac and Ranadive “cowards” for the way they handled his trade.