METAIRIE, La. -- DeMarcus Cousins officially began the next chapter of his career with the New Orleans Pelicans, but he admitted disappointment in "the dishonesty" displayed by the Sacramento Kings leading up to the departure from the only franchise he's ever played for in seven seasons in the NBA.
"Sunday was a wild day," Cousins said Wednesday at an introductory news conference at the Pelicans' training facility. "Just a lot of mixed emotions. It was very unexpected. I sat in the airport for a minute, and my mind was racing. I didn't know what to think. I've tried to understand the situation.
"Basically what I came to is this is a business. I'm not sour, I'm not mad, I don't have any ill feelings. This is a business. These types of things happen. I'm comfortable with it. I'm in a good place. Like I said, I'm ready to get to work."
Kings general manager Vlade Divac told ESPN earlier this month that the team had no plans on parting with Cousins.
"We're not trading DeMarcus," Divac said on Feb. 6. "... We hope he's here for a long time."
On Sunday, the Pelicans struck a blockbuster deal, acquiring Cousins and Omri Casspi for rookie Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans, Langston Galloway, a 2017 first-round pick and a 2017 second-rounder to the Kings.
"I haven't talked to anybody," Cousins said. "Vlade, he tried to call after everything was done. But ... it's done."
Pelicans general manager Dell Demps said he had talked to the Kings before, but discussions ramped up after a chance meeting during All-Star Weekend.
"It was funny because I was actually walking down the street, I think Thursday or Friday night, and all of a sudden, he's walking down the street and I happened to see him," Demps said of Cousins. "It was just a pure coincidence. That really revved me up even more, talking to him just for like a quick couple of seconds. I didn't say anything about the trade of anything, but it revved us up even more to renew the conversations."
Cousins said he'd heard talk about the discussions earlier Sunday, but he "basically" found out they were more serious just before he faced the media after the All-Star Game.
"It was disappointment right away," Cousins said. "But I talked to my agents after it happened and it was just a lot of confusion. My agent told me to get on the phone with Dell. He wanted me to wait a couple days, but I was like, 'No.' As I was sitting in the airport, I hopped on the phone. Being the cool guy that he is, [Demps] kind of put me at ease. What he was saying, it made sense. Right away I got excited. I felt a little bit better about the situation."
By Tuesday, Demps and Pelicans coach Alvin Gentry were flying to Sacramento to greet their two new players and bring them back to New Orleans.
Asked how competitive he is, Cousins joked, "About 17 technicals' worth." But he said he's excited about his new partnership with the more reserved Anthony Davis, a fellow Kentucky big man fresh off an All-Star Game MVP performance in which he set a record with 52 points.
"Got a little fire. Got a little ice," Cousins said of Davis. "We can wreak havoc on this league. Will it happen overnight? Probably not. But the potential is scary."
Davis described Cousins as his "big brother," and someone he depends on.
"I'm more like relaxed and he's more like ... he's DeMarcus," Davis said. "Maybe when he's on the floor, I can get, like, hyped up. Or situations come around that I need to be like, 'All right, calm down.' But it's kind of like what we need. Kind of like a perfect balance."
Cousins said he has played with Davis "plenty of times," including a stint with Team USA during its run to the gold medal at the 2014 World Cup. He even joked about teaming up the last time they faced off on Feb. 12.
"I was trying to get him on my side. He was trying to get me to New Orleans," Cousins said. "I said, 'We're going to talk; We're going to talk in the summer.'
"I was never going to Sacramento," Davis said.
Said Cousins: "But AD sent me a text like, 'I really want you to come to New Orleans,' and I kind of ignored him because I didn't know how to answer. Then I ran into Dell and this is like, 'What the hell is going on here?' Then, Sunday night, I'm a Pelican. So, I've gotten all of the signs. I guess I wasn't paying attention. But all of the signs were there. And it happened."
On Sunday night, after traveling back to the Pelicans' facility, he said he saw the news on the TV and was soon greeted with a text message from Cousins that read, 'What's up, teammate."
"We've got a lot of weapons now," Davis said. "A lot of different options that we can run out of our offense and different looks that we can get. It's gonna be beneficial for everybody."
Cousins and Davis rank fourth and fifth in the NBA in scoring average, at 27.8 and 27.7 points per game, respectively. Together, the Pelicans' new frontcourt duo has 17 games this season with at least 30 points and 15 rebounds, and 44 such games since Davis entered the league in 2012-13, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
"I would be stressed out, pulling my hair out and just praying, praying, praying just to send me some help," Cousins said about his Kings tenure. "Of course things happen in different ways."
Cousins' agent, Jarinn Akana, told ESPN's Marc Stein on Sunday that Cousins would likely pass on an extension with any team that traded for him before Thursday's deadline.
"I'm going to make the best of the opportunity," Cousins said Wednesday when asked if his stance had changed. "That's not a question I can answer right away, obviously, but I'm all-in. Make the best of this opportunity and see what the future holds."
In the meantime, Cousins jumps right back into the Western Conference playoff race only two spots lower than the Kings. The Pelicans, at 23-34 overall, are 2½ games back of the Denver Nuggets for the eighth and final playoff seed in the West, with three games against the Nuggets still to come.
"We're going to try to make it work quickly," Gentry said. "That may not be the case, but we don't have a whole lot of margin for error right now. So, this is something. We have 25 games left. Our goal, obviously, all along has been to get into the playoffs. We have to try to get it to work.
"One thing about it, is they're friends. They've been friends a long time. That makes the adjustment a little bit easier. I think both of them are very giving. I don't think there's going to be any head-bumping as far as whose team this team is or any of those situations like that."