The Sacramento Kings were planning a Lunar New Year celebration with a t-shirt giveaway until star player DeMarcus Cousins blew the whistle and called a technical.
It turns out that Cousins felt the black t-shirts adorned with a purple monkey were racially insensitive, said a story on ESPN.com. After an animated comversation with Kings officials, the t-shirts, which had been placed on seats at the Sleep Train Arena before Monday night's game against the Milwaukee Bucks, were picked up by staff and the promotion was cancelled.The Chinese Year of the Monkey begins next Monday, and the NBA is telling teams to celebrate.