{"id":347613,"date":"2026-06-05T05:28:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T05:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/347613\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T05:28:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T05:28:25","slug":"deaaron-foxs-game-1-struggles-prove-trade-was-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/347613\/","title":{"rendered":"De\u2019Aaron Fox\u2019s Game 1 struggles prove trade was right"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"San<\/p>\n

San Antonio Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox (4) celebrates a basket against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center on Tuesday, March 17, 2026.<\/p>\n

HECTOR AMEZCUA<\/p>\n

hamezcua@sacbee.com<\/p>\n

For the last ten days, Sacramento fans have filled social media with posts disparaging the front office of the Kings for firing head coach Mike Brown and trading point guard De\u2019Aaron Fox to the San Antonio Spurs. To the dismay of fans, both are now facing off against each other in the NBA Finals.<\/a><\/p>\n

Having lived in Sacramento for two years, I\u2019ve come to realize that emotional pain of being a fan of the Kings.<\/p>\n

If I had a magic wand, I would erase the mindset that has led this city to believe it is cursed.<\/p>\n

I agree that firing Brown, now the coach of the New York Knicks, was a mistake. He sincerely wanted to lift this organization<\/a> out of the bottom of the standings, where it has languished for the past 20 years. However, Fox is a different story.<\/p>\n

In his debut NBA Finals debut on Wednesday, Fox consistently missed shot after shot. Each time he committed a foolish foul \u2014 five in total \u2014 I was reminded of his poor late-game performances as a King.<\/p>\n

Who could forget his late-game blunder against the Detroit Pistons in 2024, where Fox cost the Kings a crucial victory by committing an ill-advised foul on a three-point attempt with just three seconds remaining. Pistons guard Jaden Ivey sank the game-tying three-pointer and the subsequent free throw, capping a 19-point comeback to win 114-113. What makes this even more terrible is that Brown told everyone to stay on their man, yet Fox chose not to.<\/p>\n

The first to call out Fox was Brown.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should be attached to your man at the 3-point line,\u201d Brown said. \u201cEverybody should. Why there was a close out by Fox, I\u2019m not sure. I need to go back and watch the tape. But we definitely told our guys, \u2018Can\u2019t give up a 3, can\u2019t give up a 3, can\u2019t give up a 3. Stay on the high side.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

A day after Brown made these comments, he was fired. Now, the Spurs are experiencing firsthand how inefficient Fox can be.<\/p>\n

Fox ended Game 1 of the NBA Finals with just seven points, four rebounds, five assists, and three turnovers. He\u2019s been mostly terrible in the playoffs. Problems with his ankles make him look like he\u2019s ten years older than he really is.<\/p>\n

The way Fox is playing now proves the Kings were right to trade him. He expressed a desire to leave, but he also wasn\u2019t the guy you build a franchise around. He\u2019s making more than $50 million a year in a contract that the Spurs will want to get rid of before it expires in 2030.<\/p>\n

Fox would have never been the player to take the Kings anywhere, much less the NBA Finals. The mistake previous Kings front offices made was overestimating what Fox could bring and then not getting enough value for him in return.<\/p>\n

The love fans showed Fox in Sacramento created false narrative around Fox. He could score points, but other parts of his game were mediocre at best. He wasn\u2019t a leader on the team, could be moody and he shied away from taking responsibility that a franchise player should assume.<\/p>\n

The NBA Finals so far is sending a message that Kings fans should hear loud and clear: Fox was never going to be the guy we wanted him to be. It won\u2019t be long before the Spurs come to the same conclusion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox (4) celebrates a basket against the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":347614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-347613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=347613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}