Former NBA center DeMarcus Cousins has joined the T1 League’s Taiwan Beer Leopards and is expected to make his on-court debut on Jan. 20, the Taoyuan-based team said yesterday.
The addition of the four-time NBA All-Star was a major boost, not only for the Leopards’ competitiveness, but for Taiwanese basketball as a whole, the team said in a statement.
“We’re confident that with [Cousins’] all-around skills, he will bring a totally new chemistry to the Leopards,” Leopards chief executive Johnny Chang (張建偉) said.
Photo: Cary Edmondson-USA Today
Cousins is expected to arrive in Taiwan in the middle of next month — about midway through the T1 League’s 2023-2024 season — and would be on the court for the team’s Jan. 20, 21, 27 and 28 home games, the Leopards said.
In a video message on Facebook, 33-year-old Cousins greeted his fans in Taiwan, saying he was “excited to come over and put on a show for you.”
Cousins, a 208cm center, was selected by the Sacramento Kings as the fifth overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft.
In a decade-plus career in the NBA spent mostly with the Kings, the New Orleans Pelicans and the Golden State Warriors, Cousins averaged 19.6 points, 10.2 rebounds and three assists per game over 654 games played.
He was also an NBA All-Star four times and won gold medals for the US at the 2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
He played his last games in the NBA in the 2021-2022 season.
The Leopards are second in the five-team T1 League with a 5-4 record, behind reigning champions New Taipei CTBC DEA at 7-3.
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