{"id":702550,"date":"2026-06-13T23:25:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T23:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702550\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T23:25:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T23:25:09","slug":"john-calipari-had-ridiculous-excuse-for-deaaron-foxs-game-4-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702550\/","title":{"rendered":"John Calipari Had Ridiculous Excuse For De’Aaron Fox’s Game 4 Mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Antonio Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox has received plenty of blame for the team’s Game 4 collapse against the New York Knicks. In fact, fans are creating fundraisers <\/a>just to get rid of him.<\/p>\n

Despite having a 106-105 lead with 13.1 seconds remaining in Game 4, Fox opted to take a contested layup over Knicks forward OG Anunoby instead of forcing him to foul. Anunoby ultimately blocked the shot and went down the other way make a game-winner. Although it was a foolish mistake from the veteran guard, he doubled down on his decision.<\/p>\n

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\u201cYou have to score,\u201d Fox said after the loss. \u201cTry to get a layup, get up three [points], [and] force them to need a 3. OG made a good block.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those remarks from Fox led to him receiving countless hateful messages on social media, make no mistake about it.<\/p>\n

\"Jun<\/p>\n

Jun 8, 2026; New York, New York, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard De’aaron Fox (4) controls the ball against New York Knicks guard Jordan Clarkson (00) in the fourth quarter during game three of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images\u00a9 Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images&period;<\/p>\n

Fox’s college coach, John Calipari, was sitting courtside at Madison Square Garden for Game 4. During an appearance on “The Dan Patrick Show,” Coach Cal responded to all the fans criticizing his former point guard.<\/p>\n

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Calipari pointed out that Fox is dealing with a sprained ankle at the moment.<\/p>\n

“Stop on De’Aaron Fox, he’s playing with a high ankle sprain \u2013 probably shouldn’t be playing,” Calipari said.<\/a> “He would normally dunk that layup \u2013 if he would’ve dunked it, he’s the hero.”<\/p>\n

Fans are convinced Calipari’s comments just made Fox’s late-game blunder even worse than it already was.<\/p>\n

“So Fox on a high ankle sprain still took the layup instead of slowing down and getting fouled. You do know this makes him look even worse right,” one fan commented.<\/p>\n

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“If De\u2019Aaron fox is playing with a high ankle sprain why was he saying he thought he could outrun OG and score?” a second fan asked.<\/p>\n

“I respect John Calipari for defending his former player De’Aaron Fox but the ankle is located far away from the brain,” another person replied. “It was one of the dumbest plays in sports history. Case closed.”<\/p>\n

Committed to De’Aaron Fox.<\/p>\n

Financially speaking, the Spurs are married to Fox for the next four seasons. After all, he\u2019s got $221 million remaining on his contract.<\/p>\n

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With that being said, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson instilled confidence in his point guard during Friday’s media availability.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will have their opinions. I don\u2019t care. I care about the people in our building and that locker room,\u201d Johnson told reporters. \u201cDe\u2019Aaron Fox will have the basketball in his hands at the end of the game tomorrow. I have nothing but the upmost confidence that he\u2019s going to deliver for us like he\u2019s done countless times.\u201d<\/p>\n

We’ll see if Johnson’s loyalty is rewarded in Game 5 on Saturday.<\/p>\n

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This story was originally published by The Spun<\/a> on Jun 13, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA<\/a> section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox has received plenty of blame for the team’s Game 4 collapse against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[171151,1089,32315,355,361,19560,27548,2116,99],"class_list":["post-702550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-de39aaron-fox","tag-john-calipari","tag-jordan-clarkson","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-og-anunoby","tag-point-guard","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}