Kings rookie Nik Stauskas says teams guard him differently cause he’s white

When keeping it real gets people mad. Sacramento Kings rookie Nik Stauskas made waves recently following a preseason game, where he said opposing teams sleep on him because he’s a rookie AND white.

“I understand that I’m a rookie and I’m white, so people are going to attack me at all times,” he said. “Just coming out there in the game, I felt it right away.”

Stauskas was shocked at the reaction and attempted to further clarify his remarks.

“I was very surprised,” Stauskas told Cowbell Kingdom. “People kind of took it too far with what I was trying to say. I wasn’t trying to get anyone to feel sorry for me. I wasn’t trying to be controversial or anything like that. I was just trying to keep it real.”

“As a rookie in the NBA, you’re going to get attacked on the court, you see that tonight,” Stauskas continued. “People make a point to go at me. It has a lot to do with reputation and kind of stereotypes of what your game is. For me, I look at my reputation, people look at me and obviously, I’m not the best defender in the world, so people are going to make a point to go at me and try to attack me as much as they can. That’s really what I was trying to say.”

“I’ve said stuff like that before and I don’t take that back, because I’m not trying to offend anyone, I’m not trying to be controversial, I’m just saying that’s just really how I feel,” the rookie guard said.

Look, just because someone brings up race, doesn’t automatically mean it’s a cause for outrage. On average, the other players he’s going up against know two things about him, that he’s a rookie and white. Even the great Larry Bird said he was offended when white guys would guard him.

“The one thing that always bothered me when I played in the NBA,” Bird said, “was I really got irritated when they put a white guy on me. I still don’t understand why.”

Just show them your $$ Nik, they’ll respect you then. ::giggle::