LAS VEGAS – San Antonio Spurs guard D’Aaron Fox provided a telling statement whereas considering what a distinction a 12 months has made for him.
“I haven’t stopped smiling since I’ve been right here,” Fox informed Andscape after the Spurs superior to the NBA Cup championship recreation with a 111-109 semifinals win over the Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder on Saturday night time.
A 12 months in the past, Fox was eyeing the tip of his roller-coaster tenure with the Sacramento Kings. It was additionally 12 days earlier than the Kings surprisingly fired Mike Brown as their head coach. The Kings in the end traded an ecstatic Fox to the Spurs in a three-team, seven-player, seven-pick deal on Feb. 5.
Fox is a Texas native whose spouse, Recee, can also be from San Antonio. Brown, who Fox considers “household,” additionally rebounded as he’s now head coach of the New York Knicks.
Mockingly, Fox and the Spurs are taking part in within the NBA Cup championship recreation on Tuesday night time in opposition to Brown and the Knicks. The gamers and head coach of the successful NBA Cup group will every be rewarded $500,000.
Whereas the Spurs and Knicks each personal 18-7 data and have been sizzling these days, the spiraling Kings entered the week in disarray with a 6-19 mark. With the Kings now far in his rear-view mirror and certain trying to rebuild, Fox likes his probabilities for achievement on Tuesday and past with star heart Victor Wembanyama and the rising Spurs.
“There may be simply a lot expertise on this locker room, and guys like seeing different guys succeed,” Fox mentioned. “That’s the place it begins and also you belief the opposite man behind you. We’re going on the market and taking part in collectively. We’ve quite a lot of people that might go into quite a lot of completely different gyms and put the ball within the basket and play in quite a lot of completely different situations.
“However all people is sacrificing for one another. And this [versus the Thunder] is our first recreation with all people, and I believe we made a press release.”
Fox averaged 21.5 factors, 6.1 assists and three.9 rebounds in 541 regular-season video games in his profession with the Kings. The 2023 NBA All-Star was part of a group that ended a 16-year playoff drought in 2023 whereas he earned All-NBA third-team honors that season. Fox additionally ranks fourth all-time in Kings historical past in factors (11,064) and assists (3,146) and second in steals (731), probably making him a candidate to have his No. 5 jersey retired in Sacramento at some point.
After the Kings didn’t make the playoffs in 2024, nonetheless, Fox started considering that maybe a change for him was for the very best. One signal of that mentality was a report by ESPN’s Shams Charania on Oct. 14, 2024, that Fox bypassed a three-year, $165 million most extension to stay with the Kings. On Aug. 4, Fox reached an settlement to a four-year, $229 million contract extension with San Antonio.
“We go to the playoffs and after that you just need to construct upon that,” Fox mentioned about his Kings tenure. “And that doesn’t imply going from the third seed to the primary seed. It simply means persevering with to be a playoff group. I didn’t really feel like we have been there. …
“Every little thing began going unhealthy that summer season [in 2024]. I’m in a spot the place I need to be 1765939563.”
David Liam Kyle/NBAE by way of Getty Pictures
Fox says he doesn’t watch Kings video games now, and there isn’t a lot of a connection due to all of the modifications made since he left. He nonetheless talks frequently with Kings ahead Keegan Murray, however solely six of Fox’s former teammates are nonetheless on the Kings’ roster. There may be additionally a brand new basic supervisor in Scott Perry and a brand new full-time head coach in Doug Christie.
The Kings are battling the likes of Murray and veterans Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Russell Westbrook on their roster. Sources informed Andscape that there’s a disconnect between some veteran Kings gamers and Christie and his teaching workers.
Sacramento is predicted to discover making trades of its veteran gamers, a supply informed Andscape. At dwelling video games, Kings followers have lately booed their group’s poor performances and chanted for proprietor Vivek Ranadive to promote the group. One fan was lately ejected from a recreation for heckling LaVine, a participant the Kings acquired within the Fox deal.
“I don’t actually have something to say,” Fox mentioned concerning the Kings. “It’s what it’s. I want [Murray] the very best. Whether or not that’s rebuilding, I need him to be in the very best state of affairs for him.
“The grass is greener on this facet.”
One of many many storylines on the NBA Cup championship recreation Tuesday is Fox going through an in depth buddy in Brown for the primary time since each left Sacramento.
Brown was fired in Sacramento on Dec. 27, 2024, after a 13-17 begin and a five-game dropping streak. Simply days later, nonetheless, Brown and Fox have been seen collectively within the Sacramento space having a meal.
Fox had lobbied to the Kings that Brown be rewarded with a contract extension that he ultimately obtained. Fox informed ESPN beforehand that Brown being fired was the ultimate straw: He didn’t need to play for a fifth head coach in Sacramento, and he most popular to be traded afterward.
The Knicks employed Brown on July 7, and Fox was blissful for his new alternative.
“We nonetheless discuss. I nonetheless discuss to [former Kings player development coach] Elijah [Brown], his son,” Fox mentioned. “Mike is household. It’s dope to see him in New York. For one, the Knicks are already a great group. He simply elevates them. Their aspirations are to win a championship. And I really feel like that’s what they introduced him in there to do.
“They’ve the expertise. They didn’t change the expertise. You see that early on of their season [with their success]. He’s a championship coach.”
Adam Pantozzi/NBAE by way of Getty Pictures
Fox entered this season as considered one of simply two gamers together with Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic to common 20 factors, 5 assists and a steal in every of the previous six seasons. After lacking the primary seven video games this season with an offseason hamstring harm, Fox is averaging 23.9 factors, 6.2 assists, 3.6 rebounds and 1.2 steals per recreation in 17 video games. He had 22 factors, 4 assists and two steals within the Spurs’ win over Oklahoma Metropolis and feels he has gotten his legs beneath him.
So, does Fox imagine NBA followers forgot how good he was by his harm woes and transition from Sacramento to San Antonio?
“I might say sure,” Fox mentioned. “I’m nonetheless doing what I used to be, and now I’m doing it extra effectively. And that’s as a result of taking part in with these guys, clearly, I’m doing it on much less pictures than I had up to now. It’s been good. It’s been an adjustment for me not taking part in on the ball on a regular basis.
“After I was taking part in with Domas [Sabonis], I used to be taking part in with out the ball a bit of bit and I needed to try this. Enjoying with [the Spurs], it’s nice.”
San Antonio head coach Mitch Johnson mentioned Fox has already had an influence on the group’s youthful gamers. Second-year Spurs guard Stephon Citadel and basic supervisor Brian Wright seconded that notion.
“His aggressiveness and the best way he sees the courtroom,” Citadel mentioned on how Fox has impacted him. “He’s simply all the time telling me to assault and by no means shrink back from the second. Excessive IQ guard. Simply having him on the courtroom with what he does on each side takes quite a lot of stress off of us.”
Mentioned Wright to Andscape: “You see him develop as a frontrunner and clearly you see what he does on the courtroom. However his development throughout and what he means to this group is unimaginable.”
Fox has solely made the playoffs as soon as since arriving within the NBA in 2017. The five-time NBA champion Spurs haven’t been to the postseason since 2019. These fortunes are anticipated to vary this season for San Antonio with Fox, the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama, the 2024-25 NBA Rookie of the 12 months in Citadel and different gifted gamers.
Fox can also be enthusiastic about taking part in in a significant recreation within the NBA Cup closing.
“As a lot as individuals are saying it’s not, these video games really feel huge,” Fox mentioned concerning the NBA Cup. “You go there and you may inform they’re taking it simply as critical as we’re. So, simply with the ability to play in significant video games this early within the season is nice for a bunch who hasn’t performed in a lot [meaningful games] moreover HB [Harrison Barnes] and actually Luke [Kornet]. Everyone else hasn’t performed in that. So, with the ability to get this in and you’re feeling the physicality of it, I believe it prepares guys for the playoffs.”
Including to Fox’s happiness off the courtroom is being again in Texas.
Fox grew up in Katy, a suburb within the Higher Houston space, and he has an offseason dwelling there. Houston is a couple of three-hour drive from San Antonio. His spouse was a basketball star in her personal proper, as she was a McDonald’s All-American after taking part in for Woman Chook Johnson Excessive Faculty. in San Antonio. She performed in faculty at UCLA, Texas Tech and California-Berkeley, and he or she tried out for the WNBA’s Seattle Storm. The couple has two kids collectively.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” Fox mentioned. “For one, simply with the ability to be again in Texas is nice for me, for my household. We spend our offseasons in Houston. It’s a very easy drive going backwards and forwards to San Antonio. I simply really feel like we have now a lot expertise on this room. We really feel just like the sky is the restrict for us. …
“Being round household, I’m near buddies, so much goes effectively in my life. My household, my children, basketball, the whole lot is in line proper now. Subsequent for us is to win [the NBA Cup] and attempting to win a championship.”
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