Former All-NBA center DeMarcus Cousins has a new basketball landing spot. The 6'10" big man is set to rejoin the Taiwan Beer Leopards next month, according to Chen Jung-chen and James Lo of Focus Taiwan. Per Marc Stein, the agreement with the Beer Leopards will cover a month and a half. He previously appeared in four contests with Taiwan in January.
Four-time NBA All-Star DeMarcus Cousins has signed a month-and-a-half deal to return to play in Taiwan, league sources tell @TheSteinLine.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) March 19, 2024
More NBA from me: https://t.co/LGN9cVpeGP pic.twitter.com/PBPVlosfbc
Cousins addressed Beer Leopards fans about his return on the club's Facebook page. "Super excited to be back and gearing up for an epic season of playoffs with my teammates and all of you," Cousins said. "Your support means the world, let's lock it in and go all the way for this championship run."
The four-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA honoree, 33, played for 11 NBA seasons all told. He appeared in 654 regular season games while playing for the Sacramento Kings, New Orleans Pelicans, Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets, LA Clippers, Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets. Cousins boasts career averages of 19.6 points on .460/.331/.737 shooting splits, 10.2 rebounds, three rebounds, 1.3 steals and 1.1 blocks a night.
In his prime, Cousins served as a major impact player for the Kings and Pelicans. During his NCAA days, Cousins was an All-SEC First-Team honoree and a consensus Second-Team All-American during a one-and-done stint on a star-studded University of Kentucky Wildcats squad. That club also included future long-term NBA point guards John Wall and Eric Bledsoe.
Upon making the NBA, Cousins emerged as an impressively athletic asset for Sacramento and New Orleans. A left Achilles tear in January permanently changed his professional trajectory. He joined a Hall of Famer-loaded Golden State Warriors squad that subsequent summer on a one-year, $5.3 million contract, only to tear his left quadriceps during the first round of the playoffs. He did rally to make a later return in the NBA Finals.
Cousins subsequently joined another club destined for an NBA Finals appearance, the Los Angeles Lakers, in the summer of 2019. He tore his left ACL before he could play a single game for LA, and missed the entire season as he recovered. He was cut in February 2020, but the Lakers did award him a championship ring after winning it all without him. Cousins bounced around with the Rockets, Clippers, Bucks and Nuggets. He hasn't played in the league since 2022, though he did have a workout for a Lakers reunion ahead of the team's eventual march to the Western Conference Finals in 2023. Prior to his Taiwan Beer Leopards tenure, he played with Puerto Rican club Mets de Guaynabo last year.
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