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NBA Rumors: If History Is Any Indication, DeMarcus Cousins Could Have Played His Last Game In The NBA

By Nathan Francis
Published on: 02:55 PST, Aug 16, 2019

DeMarcus Cousins may have played his final minute in the NBA after his latest devastating injury.

The Los Angeles Lakers big man is in danger of missing the upcoming season after suffering an ACL tear, suffering the injury while going through offseason conditioning in Las Vegas. The former NBA All-Star’s agent, Jeff Schwartz, confirmed to ESPN that he suffered the injury and that there was not yet a timetable for surgery.

This is now the third serious leg injury in the last year and a half for Cousins, ESPN noted, and there are some particularly troubling signs about two of those major injuries. Cousins had torn his left Achilles in January 2018, then suffered a torn quadriceps at the start of the NBA Playoffs this year that kept him out the majority of the Golden State Warrior’s run to the NBA Finals.

As ESPN reported, there has never been an instance of an NBA player suffering both an Achilles rupture and an ACL tear and returning to play in the league again.

“Cousins would again face an uncertain future after his rehab,” the report noted. “There’s no precedent I’ve found for a player returning after suffering both Achilles and ACL ruptures in the NBA. The two players in my databases who have dealt with both injuries, Emanual Davis and Jerome James, never returned to the league after the Achilles rupture. (Both were 34 at the time and already on the fringes of the league, not really comparable to Cousins.)”

While the two other players to suffer both of the injuries were not to the level of the All-Star Cousins, it would seem to indicate a very difficult path ahead for returning. As CBS Sports noted in its analysis of his injury, it would seem difficult for Cousins ever to regain his top form. His earnings may have reached a peak, however, as Cousins was forced to sign consecutive one-year deals in attempt to prove that he could still play at a top level, only to see each of those seasons drastically cut short by injuries.

Cousins had just signed a one-year, $3.5-million contract with the Lakers in July, part of a busy summer on the part of the Lakers as they tried to rapidly rebuild after a disappointing start to the LeBron James era. His future with the team is now uncertain as well, ESPN reported, as the Lakers could choose to cut Cousins to keep the roster spot open.

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