The Sacramento Kings canceled a t-shirt giveaway on Monday after some people in the organization and franchise star DeMarcus Cousins, felt they were racially insensitive.
via ESPN:
The Kings had placed black shirts adorned with a purple monkey as part of their Lunar New Year celebration on seats at Monday night’s game against the Milwaukee Bucks. The begins Feb. 8.
However, Monday also marked the first day of Black History Month, and players and coaches were wearing shirts in honor of the annual commemoration.
Cousins criticized the giveaway of Year of the Monkey T-shirts. Bucks TV analyst and former player Marques Johnson described the situation on Facebook.
“I walk into the building and DeMarcus Cousins calls me over to an animated discussion he’s having with Kings operations people,” he wrote. “He ask me, ‘Olskool, what you think about this T Shirt? Told him a little insensitive on 1st day of Black History Month’. They pulled the shirts…”
The staff removed all the shirts from the seats before fans arrived at the arena.
As news of the issue spread on social media, some people applauded Cousins for speaking up while others berated him for being too sensitive and complained about everything being “racist”.
*photos in gallery above*
