Griffin's expected departure also moves Cousins deeper into the conversation and USA Basketball officials into an increasingly uncomfortable position. No question about it. Publicly and privately, DeMarcus is making everyone sweat.
Here's the situation: Because Cousins wasn't in the pool of national team candidates submitted to the United States Olympic Committee in January and updated in May – in other words, he was only invited to train with the Select Team because of serious lobbying from the Maloofs and Keith Smart – he wasn't subjected to the requisite drug tests and, thus, hasn't received USOC clearance.
Should any of the USA's remaining big men get hurt or otherwise become unavailable between now and the London Games, adding Cousins would require serious arm-twisting by USA Basketball chairman Jerry Colangelo, or worse, an act of Congress.
"It's not impossible," men's national director Sean Ford said Thursday night. "Nothing's impossible at this stage, but we've been focused on what's in front of us right now."
Blame all this on Cousins. The third-year center complicated matters with his increasingly impressive performances. After a bad opening day of practice and some withering criticism from Colangelo, he has been repeatedly praised for his scoring, rebounding, passing and monster all-around skills. He became a factor and not a distraction, and at times, according to Select Team coach Jay Triano, was among the best players on the court.
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. i thought he has been working out and lost weight.
