Former NBA center DeMarcus Cousins is making headlines with strong criticism against the NBA’s recent rule change for All-NBA awards, attributing the shift to analytics and its potential impact on players like Joel Embiid.
The NBA’s new rule stipulates that a player must participate in at least 65 regular-season games to be eligible for All-NBA honors, a change that Cousins vehemently opposes.
In a recent statement on the Bully Ball podcast, Cousins expressed his frustration, stating, “I blame the analytics. I think analytics are literally f***ing the game up.”
Cousins illustrated his point with the example of current MVP contender Joel Embiid potentially missing out on the MVP award if he falls short of the required games.
“Joel Embiid, if he misses another 10 games, you’re sitting here saying that this guy isn’t eligible to win MVP? That’s mind-blowing,” Cousins exclaimed.
Taking his critique further, Cousins called for a reevaluation of the influence of analytics in basketball, suggesting, “I don’t wanna offend anybody, but we gotta remove the nerds from the game.”
