Kings center Willie Cauley-Stein offered the most vehement response last week when the team traded Iman Shumpert and Justin Jackson in separate deals that brought Harrison Barnes and Alec Burks to Sacramento.
“I just ran my ass off every day with these dudes,” Cauley-Stein said following Wednesday’s game against the Houston Rockets, hours after the trades were made. “It’s hard when you get friendships, you get brotherhoods, and then, with no say — they don’t even know — they just show up and then they’re gone. That’s trash. It’s a crazy business.”
Cauley-Stein explained his controversial comments during a quiet moment in the Kings’ locker room before Sunday’s game against the Phoenix Suns, telling The Bee he understood the trades but didn’t like the way Shumpert and Jackson received the news.