Cousins may miss season with injury
Lakers’ centre tears his left knee ligament
>> LOS ANGELES: Injury-nagged Los Angeles Lakers centre DeMarcus Cousins could miss the entire 2019-20 NBA season with a torn left knee ligament, the team confirmed on Thursday.
In a major setback for a club that added star big man Anthony Davis to four-time NBA Most Valuable Player LeBron James in July, Cousins suffered the injury working out in Las Vegas on Monday when he “bumped knees” with another player, according to ESPN.
Team doctors in Los Angeles on Thursday confirmed the third serious leg injury for Cousins in 18 months, with no timetable set for surgery to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Cousins was signed as a free agent in July, on a one-year deal for $3.5 million, after playing with the Golden State Warriors last season.
He spent most of the past campaign recovering from a left Achilles tendon tear in January 2018 but played 30 games for Golden State before suffering a torn quadriceps in the second game of the playoffs that sidelined him until the opening game of the NBA Finals, which the Warriors lost to the Toronto Raptors.
Cousins, 29, has played nine NBA seasons, averaging 21.2 points and 10.9 rebounds a game.
Losing Cousins would force some key changes into the Lakers’ frontline, potentially including moving Davis from power forward to centre to replace Cousins.
It also figures to give backup center JaVale McGee more time in the middle, potentially a major role if the Lakers elect to keep Davis at forward, with playmaker James another versatile threat.
“It’s super unfortunate for a guy like DeMarcus because you can just tell how much he loves basketball through all of these injuries,” Lakers standout Kyle Kuzma said at a United States national team workout in Los Angeles on Thursday. “He was going to be a big part of what we’re going to do.”
Meanwhile, Joseph Tsai, cofounder of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, is expected to purchase full control of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets from Russian businessman Mikhail Prokhorov, according to multiple reports on Thursday.
The New York Post, New York Times and ESPN reported a deal is close to completion that would have the Taiwanese-Canadian businessman buy the remaining 51 percent of the club he doesn’t currently own.
Tsai bought 49 percent of the Nets last year for $1 billion, with the chance to purchase more shares before the 2021-22 campaign began.
The deal, according to reports, is expected to be announced this week and cost $2.35 billion, the highest price ever paid for a US sports team if confirmed.
Tilman Fertitta paid a record $2.2 billion for the NBA’s Houston Rockets in 2017, the same price hedge fund owner David Tepper paid last year to buy the NFL’s Carolina Panthers. Tsai has an estimated net worth of $9.4 billion, according to Forbes magazine.
Prokhorov bought the Nets in 2010 and guided their move from New Jersey to Brooklyn into the Barclays Center, an arena the Post reported in March that Tsai was interested in purchasing as well.
The Nets made two huge free agency signings in the early minutes of the transfer period, landing two-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Kevin Durant and star guard Kyrie Irving.
While Durant is likely to miss all of the 2019-20 campaign with a torn Achilles tendon, the Nets are likely to improve on last season’s 42-40 mark and could become serious Eastern Conference contenders upon his return to form.