Former Los Angeles Lakers and current Denver Nuggets big man DeMarcus Cousins expressed his displeasure with the way the Lakers handled the reported firing of head coach Frank Vogel.
After the Lakers’ win over the Nuggets on Sunday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Vogel had coached his final game with the team. Cousins took offense to the events.
Frank Vogel has coached his final game for the Lakers, a decision that’s expected to be shared with him as soon as Monday, sources tell ESPN. Lakers’ search expected to be lengthy and expansive with no clear initial frontrunner.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 11, 2022
“The Lakers got to enjoy it for roughly half a second,” The Athletic’s Bill Oram wrote. “The news of Vogel’s expected firing spread before players had even left the court.
“DeMarcus Cousins shook his head as he walked through a back tunnel leaving Denver’s locker room.
“‘The man didn’t even make it to the f—— flight!’ said the Nuggets center, who was on the Lakers roster in Vogel’s first season in L.A. ‘The NBA getting brutal, ain’t it?’”
Despite winning an NBA title during the 2019-20 season, Vogel and the Lakers struggled throughout the past two campaigns. The Lakers failed to make the playoffs this season, but that doesn’t excuse the way Vogel’s firing was made public so quickly following the conclusion of the team’s season.
It’s also worth noting that Vogel didn’t always have his full roster available, as LeBron James and Anthony Davis both missed significant chunks of the 2021-22 season.
According to ESPN, the Lakers were the only team in the league this regular season to not have a single five-man lineup play 100 minutes together.
Through his three seasons as the Lakers’ head coach, Vogel compiled a 127-98 record and won 18 playoff games. Throughout his career, the 48-year-old has gone 431-389 in the regular season and 49-39 in the playoffs.
Cousins’ reaction to Vogel’s firing shows that the Lakers may have gone a bit too far with how they handled things.
