DeMarcus Cousins convinced Kings to nix T-shirt giveaway

By Kerouac Smith
Published

Around the NBA, players and coaches wore shirts on Monday celebrating the first day of Black History Month.

Here's the shirt:

But in Sacramento, the Kings were also looking to celebrate the Lunar New Year -- which is next Monday -- with a shirt giveaway for fans.

DeMarcus Cousins, the team's young star center, saw a problem with the shirts, however. The shirts featured a monkey in Kings' purple and proclaimed it the "Year of the Monkey." 

Here's that shirt:

So he called former NBA player Marques Johnson, now an analyst for the visiting Milwaukee Bucks, over for a second opinion.

From Johnson's Facebook page: 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...

Soon after, the shirts were removed, as you can see below:

And as you can see, the Kings still had plenty of Lunar New Year cheer to go around.

And then everyone went home happy.

(h/t Deadspin)