Matt Barnes: DeMarcus Cousins must ‘be himself’ to shake reputation

Sacramento Kings center DeMarcus Cousins had to avoid getting emotionally wound up Sunday night, and teammate Matt Barnes is trying to help him through it.

Barnes told ESPN-Tencent’s Yuan Fang that he thinks Cousins has a similar reputation as he does, and wants to help him handle it.

“We’re very similar,” Barnes said after Sunday’s game. “Obviously he’s the superstar and I’m a role player. But I think we have similar reputations. You know me being young. And doing all the stuff he did, reputation-wise, I think I can give him advice sometimes.”

Barnes thinks Cousins, who has already been suspended once this season for accumulating too many technical fouls, can fix his reputation if he puts in the effort.

“He’s got a tough rap — the reputation he’s earned,” Barnes said. “Whether it’s good or bad. We both have bad and that took me my whole career to change mine and it hasn’t worked. He just has to be able to adjust within his reputation and still be himself. He has to keeps his head.

“It’s hard. He gets beat up. He doesn’t get calls, he gets bad calls against him. But you know when you are one of the best players, a lot of responsibilities come with that. We need him to win.”

As for Cousins, he seemed to think too much of being himself can be part of the problem.

“I can’t be myself,” Cousins said. “Me playing the way I play is what makes me the player I am. I’m trying to find a way to do what these guys are asking me to do. Obviously what I’ve been doing is not acceptable. It’s not easy, but I’m trying to find a way.”

Cousins did manage to keep his cool despite this incident. That’s the sort of thing the Kings are looking for as he continues to try to learn to keep his emotions in check.