"Performative" - DeMarcus Cousins Slams Jayson Tatum’s Pregame Gesture Towards Jaylen Brown

DeMarcus Cousins on Jayson Tatum's gesture© Instagram/ jaytatum0 and Instagram/ boogiecousins

Few pregame moments get picked apart the way Jayson Tatum's did on Tuesday night. When Boston visited Philadelphia for the first meeting between the two former teammates, cameras caught Tatum walking over to greet Jaylen Brown. By tip-off, the whole league had an opinion and DeMarcus Cousins brought his to Run It Back on FanDuel TV. Cousins believed that the gesture was “performative” and staged.

DeMarcus Cousins Shares His Opinion On Jayson Tatum's Gesture

The moment itself was brief. Tatum tried to dap Brown up before the opening tip with a tap on the shoulder and a thump on the chest, and Brown ignored it. On the show, Cousins said it looked staged, and he thought Tatum was trying to make Brown look like the bad guy.

“I feel like Jaylen Brown, with the words that he said, he's kind of made it clear, like, we're not cool. There's nothing to really talk about.” Cousins talked about Brown's comments after ga,e against Chicago Bulls. “We're not cool.” He further stated, “So, to me, it was a bit performative. It was almost like, let me be the good guy in the spotlight while I can make him look like the bad guy in the spotlight. At the end of the day, if you can't have a conversation in private, why have an interaction in public?”

That last line is the heart of it. Cousins isn't saying Tatum was wrong to reach out. He's saying that doing it in front of TV cameras, after Brown had already made his feelings clear, put Brown in an awkward spot. The show's own social post asked fans whether the 76ers star should have been left alone before the game.

What Did Jaylen Brown Say?

In the locker room after the game between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Chicago Bulls, Jaylen Brown was asked a question about Jayson Tatum. He was asked if he would interact with his former teammate, Tatum, during their next game against the Boston Celtic. Brown had a clear answer. He stated, “There is nothing to talk about. He is on his side; I am on my side, playing basketball. Both of us are trying to win. So there is nothing to talk about. Check the ball up.”

In the next game against the Celtics, the 76ers faced a disappointing loss. They lost the game by 22 points. It was in this very game that Tatum tried to interact with Brown before the game.