Apparently Kevin Durant wasn't the only Warriors player who shouldn't have been on the court in the NBA Finals last June.
Durant, of course, returned on Game 5 after sitting out nine games with a calf injury and promptly blew his Achilles tendon.
Meanwhile, DeMarcus Cousins (remember him?) was dealing with some drama of his own.
A 10-year veteran center, Cousins joined the Warriors last season in hopes of making his first appearance in the NBA postseason. But early in the Warriors' second playoff game Cousins tore his left quad. He sat out 14 games and rejoined the team in the Finals.
He played all six Finals games, averaging 8.3 points and 4.7 rebounds. He gave the Warriors an immediate lift in the wake of Durant's catastrophic Game 5 injury, with 14 points and six rebounds.
Cousins, currently with the Lakers, now says he shouldn't have been on the floor.
"I rehabbed a torn quad in six weeks," he said on a recent appearance on Showtime's "All the Smoke" podcast with former Warriors Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
"I was terrible in the Finals. One-leg bandit on the floor," he said. "But I wanted to be a part of it. In the Finals, you play hurt. That's when you lay your body on the line. I went out there and I gave what I had. I helped in spots. But I wasn't supposed to be on the floor."
Cousins said he didn't regret rushing back to action. "Hell no. I'm OK with the results.
"I just kept telling myself, 'This is what I've played for my entire career _ to be on this stage, to have this opportunity. Whatever I've got do to be able to be a part of that, I'm going do it,'" he said. "I don't even know how I did it honestly."
Cousins, by the way, hasn't played one second for the Lakers. He tore his left ACL in a pickup game with NBA players last July. Lakers head coach Frank Vogel said last weekend that there is a possibility Cousins could play in the Lakers' postseason.
"He's on track to get healthy by the playoffs," Vogel told reporters during All-Star weekend, "and we'll have to see where he's at with rhythm and conditioning and timing and all that stuff. But there's a possibility he returns this season, yes."
