I voted twice because I was watching both of those games when they happened and they were both amazing. I was crushed when a newly installed Pete D'Alessandro let Tyreke go just a couple months after we found out we were keeping the team and he was out there at the rally celebrating with us. If there's any silver lining in this at all for me it's that I never thought I would get to see Tyreke 'reke-ing havoc in a Kings uniform in the new arena. I hope the tide of (completely justified) animosity heading for Vivek and Vlade doesn't overshadow the significance of that moment. I hope he gets a warm welcome from the hometown crowd when he puts on that uniform again.
It's appropriate I guess then that my last (and only) visit to Golden 1 to see Cousins as a King was his 55pt game with the "just kidding" un-ejection and game clinching block that followed. That pretty much sums up his tenure for me. Just an absolute unstoppable monster when he wanted to be. He had his faults, who doesn't, but for my money he was always an absolute joy to watch right up to the end, pouting faces and all. He was the id of basketball personified. Perfection is overrated. If I'm ranking 'p words' I'll take passion, petulance, perseverance, and preternatural brilliance any day over perfection. I think our flaws in many ways define us more than our gifts anyway. The joy of being human is in those brief transcendent moments of "overcoming" whatever it is that we need to overcome. I hope he gets a warm welcome when the Pelicans next come to town too. We can't do anything about our front office, but we can still show these guys that we understand what "loyalty is love" means.