DeMarcus Cousins planned to prove doubters wrong while playing on a one-year contract with the Lakers this season.
Those hopes were dealt a crushing blow this week.
Cousins sustained a torn anterior cruciate ligament, according to his agent, Jeff Schwartz, of Excel Sports Management.
“Injuries are part of the game, but you’re talking about a player who has now dealt with the two most feared injuries for NBA players — the Achilles and the ACL,” Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after a Team USA practice at the Lakers’ practice facility in El Segundo. “To deal with that over two-and-half, three-year span, it’s unheard of. I don’t know. What a blow for him, for the Lakers.”
The injury occurred during a five-on-five game of organized pickup with other NBA players earlier this week in Las Vegas. Cousins bumped knees with another player and fell to the court, but when he rose he walked without any apparent limitations. It wasn’t until the next day that the injury began to seem more serious.
Those familiar with Cousins’ condition feared the diagnosis early on Thursday, and it was confirmed after Cousins met with Lakers doctors Thursday afternoon. The center, who turned 29 on Tuesday, is still working through a recovery plan and timetable. Recovery from ACL tears often take between nine months and a year.
Cousins went into free agency this season feeling healthy, and he was slimmer than he’d been throughout his playing career, but knowing many teams would be wary of his health.
When fully healthy, he was widely considered one of the league’s best centers. The New Orleans Pelicans considered it a coup to have traded for him in February 2017. During the 2017-18 season Cousins was playing some of the best basketball of his career. His Achilles tendon tear in January 2018 depressed his free-agent value and kept him off the court for a year.
