Lakers center DeMarcus Cousins suffered a torn ACL in his left knee, which was confirmed by his agent, Jeff Schwartz, of Excel Sports Management on Thursday.
It’s a big blow first and foremost for Cousins, who’s been battling really hard to get healthy since suffering a torn left Achilles tendon in January of 2018, and then a torn left quadriceps muscle in April of 2019, only to return for Golden State in the NBA Finals. As the news got around, several of his teammates weighed in with their thoughts and well wishes, including Kyle Kuzma at Team USA practice.
"It's no joke when you get injured," Kuzma said. "This is our livelihood and it's something that we love to do. It's super unfortunate for a guy like DeMarcus because you can just tell how much he loves basketball through all of these injuries ... he's fought back and tried to get back as early as possible. That's kind of how the ball goes sometimes ... he was going to be a big part of what we're going to do."
Cousins looked to have had a good chance to earn a starting role alongside LeBron James and Anthony Davis in the Lakers frontcourt, and he’d have provided an enticing X-factor for coach Frank Vogel to unleash against the rest of the NBA.
A timeline for surgery is currently being discussed.