DeMarcus Cousins says the Sacramento media experience left a mark on him long before this week’s hot mic controversy around Kings reporters.
The former Kings center was drawn into the conversation after The King’s Herald’s Will Griffith pointed on X to past behavior from former Sacramento Bee columnist Ailene Voisin, saying she had pinched Cousins’ belly and written about other players’ muscles. Cousins, who is 36, made it clear he did not view any of it as harmless.
“Sick times smh,” Cousins stated.
When Griffith followed up and asked whether it happened only once or continued, Cousins described a more invasive moment.
“She actually lift my shirt up to see what [my] body looked like,” Cousins stated.
He later posted: “She actually lift my shirt up to see what body looked like..”
Griffith said he believed the incident happened during Cousins’ rookie season, after Sacramento took him with the No. 5 pick in the 2010 NBA Draft. For Cousins, that kind of treatment fit a broader pattern he says he dealt with in Sacramento.
On Gil’s Arena, he said he wasn’t shocked by the latest hot mic clip involving Kings reporters.
“I’m not surprised,” Cousins said. “I’ve been one of the main people in the past to talk about how corrupt I felt the media in Sacramento was, how biased, how they do a lot of s*** behind the scenes that it’s easy to cover up because it’s a smaller town.
It’s not as much attention on the situation. So, this type of corrupt s***, I’ve seen it time and time again.
“And I’m not surprised, and I’ll go out on the limb and say this, if this was a male in this situation, it’s a really ugly [situation],” Cousins stated. “… I think it should be handled accordingly, as if it was a male. Whatever the situation would have been if it was a male talking this way, however you would have handled him, handle these females the same exact way.
“But I’m not surprised,” Cousins continued. “I’ve had my own personal experience as far as dealing with the Sac media and feeling violated at the same time.
Lady by the name of Ailene Voisin. She was a beat reporter when I played there at the time.
In my rookie season, she just had this infatuation about my body, even before I stepped foot in Sacramento. She only reported about my body.
“She compared me to Oliver Miller and all these overweight type players,” Cousins added. “So it’s pretty sick.
But it was one specific day where she decided to walk up to me and lift my shirt up because she wanted to see what my body looked like underneath my shirt. Then she went on to write an article about it.
So I remember in that moment just kind of feeling like uneasy about it.”
Cousins also said he brought the issue to the Kings front office and was told to ignore it.
The recent incident itself has also put Sacramento back under the microscope. In the clip, female reporters can be heard describing Zach LaVine and Ben Simmons as “hella fine.”
Simmons was also called cringe, while LaVine was labeled a p**** with an annoying personality. The pair were then ranked by looks.
It remains unclear who was involved or whether any discipline will follow. Sara Hodges’ name was mentioned in the audio, and she was present at media day as a sports anchor/reporter for CBS Sacramento, but there is no confirmation that she made any of the remarks.
No players have commented publicly yet, though LaVine’s wife, Hunter, has reacted to the clip. She called it a great start to the season for the Kings, then later said she loves her husband’s personality.
For a team that usually wants September and media day to be about basketball, this is the kind of noise that keeps following the Kings around.
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