Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins evidently has plenty of pull within the organization—the big fella made the team cancel a T-shirt giveaway Monday night in conjunction with the Lunar New Year celebration, feeling it was inappropriate to put purple monkeys on the garments on the first day of Black History Month.
Join us in celebrating Lunar New Year tonight at @SleepTrainArena!https://t.co/Tz9feZTRRe
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) February 2, 2016
Boogie got support from Milwaukee Bucks TV analyst Marques Johnson, and the shirts were promptly taken down:
I walk into the building and DeMarcus Cousins calls me over to an animated discussion he’s having with Kings operations people. He ask me, “Olskool, what you think about this T Shirt? Told him a little insensitive on 1st day of Black History Month”. They pulled the shirts…
DeMarcus voices his displeasure and to the Kings credit they pull the Monkey T Shirts… pic.twitter.com/bHSz4KVinh
— Marques Johnson (@olskool888) February 2, 2016
Good move Kings. Year of Monkey Tees on 1 st day of Black History Month not a good look. Thanks DeMarcus… pic.twitter.com/wvqkdgdr7r
— Marques Johnson (@olskool888) February 2, 2016
The Kings then went out and handed visiting Milwaukee a 111-104 loss.
Per the Journal Sentinel:
Others in the Kings organization also objected to the promotion, which was to take place on the first day of Black History Month.
Kings employees rushed to take all the shirts off seats at the Sleep Train Arena, where they were placed earlier Monday. The black shirts adorned with a purple monkey were to be given away as part of a Chinese Lunar New Year Celebration during the game between the Bucks and Kings.
Instead the shirts were stashed away before fans began filing into the arena, located west of downtown Sacramento. A new downtown arena is being built and is scheduled to be ready for the 2016-’17 season.
