DeMarcus Cousins, Sacramento Kings Reach Four-Year Contract Extension After Shaquille O’Neal's Addition In Ownership Group

DeMarcus Cousins have been included in several trade rumors in the past few months, but those talks have now ended as Cousins and the Sacramento Kings appear to have reached a new deal.

First reported by the Sacramento Bee, Cousins and the Kings reportedly agreed to a four-year extension worth $60 million. The new deal will lock up Cousins with the Kings until the 2017-18 season with a no early termination option for both the player and the team.

With a new deal sealed, Cousins joined his fellow 2010 NBA draftees Paul George of the Indiana Pacers, John Wall of the Washington Wizards, and Larry Saunders of Milwaukee Bucks, who all signed lucrative contract extensions with their respective teams.

George and Wall received a maximum five-year deal. Cousins is also eligible to receive the five-year max deal, but reports suggested that the Kings offered just a four-year deal due to the previous "unprofessional" acts of Cousins on and off the hardcourt.

Despite having a troublesome year last season, the new ownership group led by Vivek Ranadive had all praises for the 23-year-old center. Shaquille O'Neal, who became the newest minority owner and the chief mentor of Cousins, might have played a big role in the negotiations.

During the press conference on Tuesday in which the addition of O'Neal to the ownership group was announced, Ranadive and O'Neal expressed their support for Cousins.

"I don't want to say anything premature about an extension, but I've been constant in my support for DeMarcus. I reached out to him when we first closed the deal. He was the first person I reached out to. They're out there practicing on their own every day and he's out there leading those practices," Ranadive said in an interview with USA Today.

Cousins, who was selected as the fifth-overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, averaged 17.9 points and 9.9 rebounds per game last season, joining the likes of Dwight Howard, Tim Duncan, Kevin Love, David Lee, Al Jefferson, LaMarcus Aldridge and Al Horford in the list of players to averaged at least 17 points and nine rebounds in the 2012-13 NBA season.