DeMarcus Cousins: From Fan to Raider Nation Supporter
DeMarcus Cousins doesn’t exactly blend into a crowd.
At 6-foot-10 and roughly 270 pounds, the former NBA All-Star cut through the fan section at Raiders training camp on August 7 and instantly became a second attraction. Phones shot up. Kids stared. Grown men did double takes. Half of Raider Nation seemed torn between asking for a photo and simply marveling at the size of the man weaving his way toward the field.
Las Vegas has been home to Cousins for a decade, but his connection to the Silver and Black runs much deeper than geography. It started in Alabama, long before the franchise ever packed up from Oakland and headed for the desert.
From Mobile to the Black Hole
Growing up between Mobile and Birmingham, Cousins watched the rise of a local phenomenon: JaMarcus Russell. The five-star quarterback prospect played at a rival high school, but the young Cousins didn’t care about school colors when Russell took the field. He was watching a hometown hero.
Cousins followed Russell to LSU, then into the 2007 NFL Draft, when the quarterback went No. 1 overall to the Oakland Raiders. For a kid in Alabama with no pro team of his own, that moment forged a bond.
“Regardless of how it turned out as far as his professional career ... he's the reason why I became a Raiders fan,” Cousins told Raiders.com.
From then on, Cousins was hooked from afar. Alabama didn’t have its own NFL franchise, so the team he chose became something almost mythical, a distant obsession on television and in video games. When the Raiders eventually landed in his adopted city of Las Vegas, it felt less like coincidence and more like destiny.
“When the Raiders moved out here, it felt like a gift sent from God, specifically for me,” he said. “[Being] from Alabama, we never had our own professional sports team, so the team I was a fan of, I've always had to be a fan from afar. I feel like it was meant to be and that's how I know this place is home for me.”
A Star in One Arena, a Fan in Another
Cousins’ own path to professional stardom followed a similarly hyped arc. A five-star recruit himself, he played one season at Kentucky before going No. 5 overall in the 2010 NBA Draft to the Sacramento Kings.
That move brought him within driving distance of his chosen football team. Oakland was just a run down I-80 from the state capital, and by his fourth NBA season, Cousins finally made it to the Coliseum for his first live Raiders game. It didn’t disappoint.
What struck him wasn’t just the football. It was the people.
“I think it's a collective group, a collective community of passionate fans,” Cousins said. “They kind of got that grittiness to them, not scared to do the dirty work. I like those type of fans. I like the hard workers, I like the 'us against the world' type attitude. That's what represents Raider Nation.”
That edge, that chip-on-the-shoulder mentality, mirrored the way Cousins played basketball. It made the connection feel natural. He wasn’t just wearing the colors; he understood them.
From Watching Woodson to Knowing Woodson
If Russell opened the door to Raider Nation for Cousins, Charles Woodson cemented the relationship.
Woodson, the do-it-all defensive back and future Hall of Famer, quickly became one of Cousins’ all-time favorite Raiders. Over the years, as Cousins’ NBA profile grew, their worlds began to overlap. Mutual friends pulled their circles closer, until the former kid in Alabama who watched Woodson on TV now knew him personally.
“We have a lot of mutual friends that have kind of eventually brought our circles together,” Cousins said. “His legacy speaks for itself. He's one of one. Just being able to have a relationship with him, outside of also being a fan at the same time, I think that's really cool.”
For Cousins, that’s the surreal part of being both a star and a supporter. On one hand, he’s the 6-foot-10 center who once dominated NBA paint battles. On the other, he’s still the kid who used to sit in front of the television and marvel at No. 24 roaming the secondary.
A Giant Among Giants
After the Raiders wrapped up practice in Henderson, Cousins and his family headed down to the field. This time, the players were the ones looking up.
Even standing next to some of the biggest men on the roster – Tyler Linderbaum, Kolton Miller, Maxx Crosby – Cousins still loomed larger. The visual said it all: one of the NBA’s great big men, shoulder to shoulder with NFL linemen, and somehow still towering over them.
Yet Cousins wasn’t there to measure wingspans. He was there to get a feel for the team he’s adopted as his own. What he saw left him energized about what’s coming.
“The future is bright for the Raiders right now,” he said. “Got the No. 1 pick in [Fernando] Mendoza, We got an incredible pick in [Ashton] Jeanty as well. We've improved our O-line, our defense is unbelievable – I believe they could be top 5 or top 10 in the league.
“Our future is bright.”
For a franchise that has lived so much of its identity in the past – the mystique, the legends, the renegade image – hearing that kind of conviction from a star who chose them, long before they ever came to his city, carries its own weight.
Raider Nation has never lacked for belief. Now, one of basketball’s fiercest competitors is betting big that this time, the faith gets rewarded.
