Mike Krzyzewski defends DeMarcus Cousins on Calipari podcast

Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski went on John Calipari’s podcast and defended former Kentucky center DeMarcus Cousins, who is in a spat with the Sacramento media.

Krzyzewski appeared on Cal Cast, which is to be released on Tuesday but was made available to ESPN on Monday. The interview was taped last Thursday.

Coach K said he enjoyed coaching several of Calipari’s former Kentucky players while with Team USA. That included Cousins, now the star center for the Kings. Krzyzewski said Cousins “gets a bad rap sometimes.”

Cousins has played on several national teams, including the one that won the gold medal in Rio this year.

“For him to come back and still want it, it said a lot about how much he wanted to do it,” Krzyzewski told Calipari. “He came through for us big time. He’s tough as hell. He is so damn talented. I don’t think he has a position. You can’t call him a 5 or a 4. Just call him a great player.”

Cousins earned headlines over the weekend for his profanity-laced tirade at a Sacramento Bee columnist. Cousins objected to Andy Furillo using his brother’s name when writing about an alleged incident at a nightclub that involved the brothers.

Executive editor Joyce Terhaar wrote a column defending Furillo and criticizing Cousins. Kings Coach Dave Joerger then criticized the paper for its treatement of Cousins and the Kings.

Here’s the link for the Calipari podcasts on iTunes.

This story was originally published December 19, 2016 at 4:10 PM.