OAKLAND — DeMarcus Cousins was officially introduced as a member of the Warriors Thursday morning. In the nearly 23 minutes he spoke to the media during his introductory press conference, he recounted the emotions and tales that filled a bizarre free agency recruitment period.
Cousins, currently recovering from an Achilles tear he suffered in late January, had no offers in free agency before the Warriors got involved. Once they did, they included their best players in the recruiting pitch, similar to the Kevin Durant situation two summers ago.
Cousins spoke with Durant, Stephen Curry, and Draymond Green, who relayed the same message.
“Every guy said, ‘Let’s go get another championship,’” Cousins said Thursday. “That was the first thing. What really put me at ease was the excitement. They are a well-established team, and they could have easily been like, no, we don’t need him, or whatever the case may be. They were excited like a team that has never accomplished anything. Just having that feeling alone gave me a sense of, being able to relax and being calm about the situation.”
Of course, the one All-Star missing in the recruiting pitch was Klay Thompson, whose summer has been spent traveling the world to promote his sneaker brand, Anta. But that’s OK. Cousins said Thompson is “by far” his favorite of all the Warriors.
“For him to be as dull as he is, there is never a dull moment,” said Cousins, laughing.
“We were going through the whole process and we said, ‘Should we talk to Klay?’” Warriors general manager Bob Myers said. “And Steve (Kerr) said, ‘He’s fine, he doesn’t care. He doesn’t care who’s on the team.’
“And it’s true, we all were kind of laughing like, ‘We should probably tell Klay about this.’”
Cousins, who played alongside the Warriors’ stars with USA Basketball, said he clicked with Green right away because they are both “goofballs.” The same went for Durant and Curry.
“It’s a great group of guys,” Cousins said. “Easy going people, maybe outside of Draymond. It’s a great group. I think we will mesh well.”
Cousins cited two reasons he wanted to join the Warriors: their winning culture, and they retain the “most talented players of this era.”
Bob Myers said he was skeptical that they would sign Cousins, more so than the Andre Iguodala and Durant additions in past summers. Myers relayed an encouraging message to Cousins when the two spoke on the phone before he eventually signed.
“Whether you come to us or not, you deserve to be in the playoffs,” Myers said. “You deserve to play playoff basketball.”
One of the basketball-centric questions surrounding the Cousins acquisition is how he fits on the floor with the current roster. The Warriors have not had a dominant, low-post threat throughout their four-year run of three NBA championships. Myers tried to simplify the thinking during the Cousins talks.
“We all get caught up in positions, but let’s get the best players we can and put them out there,” Myers said. “That’s what we always try to do. He fits that criteria.”
