I don’t of one person saying Fox was right
Sabonis vs Fox?
- Thread starter Srzly
- Start date
kingsboi
Hall of Famer
this is basically the wifey pushing Fox to request only San Antonio as a destination so she can have family to watch two children and then filling his head with nonsense, female psychology takes this round. I still think Sabonis requests a trade but if he doesn't that will show us that he has class and the Kings will eventually do the right thing and ship him once the play-in is out of reach.
MizzouKing
Starter
Thanks for posting this, I need to catch up on my LOK podcasts... I've been seeing other posts for many months alluding to locker room disgruntlement and wondering what the scoop was, but I'm not in Sac so my "news" is only what gets posted (which tends to be a more risk averse activity for the hosts).
So how do the local media folks fit into all this? Is Matt from Locked on Kings more of a Sabonis guy? What about Deice and Mo?? From what you mentioned about DC, it sounds like the convo he was obligated to have to implore Fox to stay wasn't ever going to go anywhere...
iowamcnabb
Hall of Famer
Bickering before training camp is just what we needed to jump start the forum for the season. We are back.
Recee really greased local media and the twitter influencer crowd. In most other Kings circles I'd say it still trends at least 60-40 that Kings did Fox dirty and not the other way around. That included reddit though, if sticking to Twitter and the folks that moved over to bluesky it may be closer to >75%
I'm not sure if anyone is on "Team Domas". Matt is 80% homer content though.
coolhandluke
Starter
Anything to distract from the Anjali fiasco
Whatever happened with Anjali is embarrassing and a stain on Vivek's child rearing and business mentorship skills, but the Stockton Kings were pretty much the gem of the G-League while she was there. It is fuel for the Vivek hater fire but I imagine fans of 29 other teams most of whom also think their owners are rich jerks who get away with everything under the sun its a non-story.
coolhandluke
Starter
It's definitely a story that needs to be talked about more. Is turning the Stockton Kings into a personal harem not a story? Imagine the outcry if the genders were swapped. Vivek runs the Kings organizations like a lala company filled with nepo hires who are given free reign to indulge in nonsense. The lack of ethics and the staggering incompetence are worthy stories, if only we had a media with a backbone.
I imagine that more of this goes on than you or I think. We see plenty of front office and owners and their children as well as coaches who are men in inappropriate relationships with their underlings all the time. For the men, it's only a story when the women file harassment claims, and I guess for the women it's when the guy kills someone.
Jeannie Buss was in a years long relationship with Phil Jackson and nobody seemed to question her role with the team over it. Up until this it sure seemed like Anjali was maybe modeling herself on following a similar path.
In the end she's a young woman who made some grievous personal decisions but sexism coupled with pure hatred of her father have always been at the root of the media and fan narrative on her.
Just my two cents.
KingsFanSince85
All-Star
Sexism had nothing to do with it. She was completely unqualified for the position she was gifted due to nepotism. And the end result, and all the repeated drama leading up to it, bears that out.
There are dozens of male children of owners working similar or actual NBA (vs G-League) positions with nepotism as their only qualification who exist unquestioned in the league. I'm not the sort that runs around screaming sexism at every slight, but sure felt obvious to me that was in play in all the criticism.
Also the main reason this is a story is because the dirt bag she dated turned out to be a murderer, so she's being blamed for this other guy's actions she had nothing to do with. There might be a word for that.
QWERTYLICIOUS
Starter
I've been itching to tell a few people how wrong they are. Feels good
Not for anything to actually do with the Kings I am actually least excited about this season as I have been in years. I think it's all the different media contracts, League Pass will be less value than ever, and I am not sure I will even have access to everything.
Next time they negotiate they should have a strict no blackouts on League Pass deal. I don't think that is going to cost Prime, Peacock or whover any subscribers.
Next time they negotiate they should have a strict no blackouts on League Pass deal. I don't think that is going to cost Prime, Peacock or whover any subscribers.
NewArena
All-Star
You’re making a LOT of assumptions here to fit whatever you may or may not already feel about Domas and Brown. It would be a lot easier to just say you don’t care for Sabonis at this point. Brown did all that for Sabonis but couldn’t turn Fox into a consistent player? Interesting.
This. How would you know all this if you weren’t there?
NewArena
All-Star
Disagreeing with a coaching style and ways about doing things in general doesn’t equate to “quitting”. That’s a wild accusation of someone i have only ever seen play hard and sacrifice his entire body night after night. Sabonis gave Mike Brown all he had with a broken hand for months and months, only missing a single game when he could have sat out for 6 + weeks.
No, i don’t believe that’s someone that would turn around and suddenly quit on the guy just because certain dynamics may or may not have changed and they all hit a few bumps in the road. There’s zero evidence to support any of these assumptions, including the hearsay that inspired this thread.
I think Brown got a raw deal and his 2 main players were part of the problem. Also think Vivek had a big part in this. Brown is not without fault. Didn’t say I didn’t like Domas. I do like him but I also think he’s not innocent in what happened. He had his part.
At the end of the day a team won’t be successful if your 2 best players are Fox and Sabonis, you need a legitimate first or second all nba guy to be your best player. And with losing will come blame and finger pointing, and the coach is usually first in line.
ShastaKingsFan
All-Star
Only one of them completely lost focus and looked like a losing junior varsity player on a game deciding play at a critical point in the season. (Detroit game at home)
Yeah, but everything you're bringing up with Domas is just heresay and unproven radio noise. We all saw Fox quit on this team at the end and have literal months of the season where he was coasting with effort and production.
Maybe Domas had massive problems internally, but it never showed on the floor. He always brings the energy and production.
Maybe you’re right, maybe I’m right. Without you getting pissed off, because I’m not interested in that, but consider this….
I did hear one of the afternoon personalities bring up issues on Domas’ end. But no one ran with this part. I guess conspiracy theory could be that it’s not good for the brand to question Domas when there was a juicy target in Fox who gave everyone everything they needed to vent knowing he’s going to be gone. The Foxes were enough. Vivek sided with Domas knowing he had no choice with Fox on the way out.
Also wonder about the famous Fox and Brown dinner photo. Fox WAS a player who wanted Brown back based on reports. Is this where the rift started?
In the end, doesn’t matter, venting will be coming Perry’s way here soon and or Lavine and or DDR, etc, etc
Honest question - what was the issue. Or was it just "unspecified issues"? Nothing has passed the eye test.
Fox was about to go public with a trade demand on a team that had catered to him for years dating back to passing on Luka Doncic. Sure, sure, sure Brown was criticizing him after every presser, singling him out, right in the middle of him trying to make All-NBA for his SuperMax deal, but everything was 100% peachy.
Of course Fox's team saw their opportunity to have a very public dinner with Coach Brown and then use it to trash the organization and their decision to relieve Brown of duties even as Fox quit on the team amidst something like a 9-1 run to get back into playoff contention.
It was a masterwork from his PR team but he hasn't proven to be anything but self serving on his way out I don't see how you can take this PR stunt at face value.
ockingsfan
Starter
The Stockton Kings had a pretty good record during her tenure. Regardless of nepotism, if a GM's success is reflected in the teams record, she actually did a pretty good job as the GM.
The one thing that got mentioned was Domas was balking at Brown’s intense practices. I feel as though it was discussed on this board. Team wasn’t executing defensive principles so Brown wanted to practice, some of the team is balking at the practices in season being tough, but team isn’t executing. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. Spiraled down the drain. Frustration on Browns part……which I believe we all saw in post game pressers.
I am not sure if it was intense or it was excessive. It certainly seemed that Brown was using practice as punishment after a loss, which I think we can all look back to the fact that Brown ran them through a 4 hour practice immediately following the Detroit loss on a travel day and wonder what was he thinking.
Domas supposedly wanted more family time. There is truth to that. Domas did elect to homebase out of Napa which is definitely not Sacramento. I do have nits to pick with that. I'm not an NBA player nor have I ever been. I am not sure if Brown's practices were normal, nor am I sure if they represented a change of pace from the two years prior when the team wasn't losing at the rate they were. Personally I think using practice as punishment is horrible and I am under the impression it is frowned upon by modern sports psychologists.
GWD
Bench
Nailed it.
Is there proof he was using practice as punishment? Or was he trying to get them to get it right? Sounds like the team split into two camps with his main cogs as the head of each camp.
As others have said, maybe it’s the norm in the nba for players to tune out.
I personally think the makeup of the team was full of players who were mentally soft. Good players with talent but doing what it takes to get deeper into the playoffs wasn’t in them. Wish they would reset the team.
Reading through all this really does highlight what a god damn crap show this org turned into last year.
It's likely we're better off the pure fact of every big pillar being aligned and wanting to work together. As compared to lat year where there were literally like 4 different factions all butting heads.
It's likely we're better off the pure fact of every big pillar being aligned and wanting to work together. As compared to lat year where there were literally like 4 different factions all butting heads.
I don't know any of these people personally and I don't care to speculate too far on who they are off the court. What I saw from a basketball point of view is that De'Aaron Fox and Mike Brown were the two guys who gave this team a chance to win, not just in the regular season but meaningful games in the playoffs. They were the two guys who wanted to win so badly it made them a little bit crazy. Our front office blowing that up leaves us rudderless and without a strong leader on the court or on the sideline.
Maybe Fox was playing for a new contract last Fall.. on some level, every NBA player is because of course they are, it's their job... but it was undeniable to anyone who watched our one playoff series of the last 19 years that we were only going to go as far as Fox could take us. When Mike Brown came in he made a point of saying that Fox was going to be the guy. And maybe some of the other players on the team didn't like that message and maybe they also didn't like having to practice defense for hours at a time instead of the loose run and gun brand of basketball which has become synonymous with Sacramento Kings futility, but being a little crazy like that is what it takes to win in the NBA.
It's possible that Doug Christie has the personality and knowledge to lead a winning team himself ... he did for a few weeks back in January ... I don't know that one way or another yet. But one thing is for certain, he's not going to win us any games himself. Brown and Fox were a duo, each needed the other and when Brown left Fox wasn't far behind. The big question we need to answer right now is who is going to be the guy for Doug Christie's Kings? I was pretty lukewarm on Kuminga when the idea was first broached but watching how this off-season has unfolded, yeah I'll take a pissed off and motivated 22 year old with incredible physical gifts who is so willing to bet on himself that he's willing to turn down $75 million to escape being a role-player for Steph Curry in Golden State. He may not end up being the guy himself, but he would help to shift the overall team personality in the right direction.
The main thing I'm worried about with this team is that guys will come in motivated and hungry and ready to work and then they'll get into our locker room and guys will look at them funny. "What are you working so hard for? We're the Kings, we coast out there and then shrug off the losses and say we'll get 'em next time." Who knows what's real and what is PR at this point, but if it's true that some players were bristling at the idea of extra practice while the team was in the midst of a losing streak, then I personally want all of those players gone. They can coast for some other franchise.
Maybe Fox was playing for a new contract last Fall.. on some level, every NBA player is because of course they are, it's their job... but it was undeniable to anyone who watched our one playoff series of the last 19 years that we were only going to go as far as Fox could take us. When Mike Brown came in he made a point of saying that Fox was going to be the guy. And maybe some of the other players on the team didn't like that message and maybe they also didn't like having to practice defense for hours at a time instead of the loose run and gun brand of basketball which has become synonymous with Sacramento Kings futility, but being a little crazy like that is what it takes to win in the NBA.
It's possible that Doug Christie has the personality and knowledge to lead a winning team himself ... he did for a few weeks back in January ... I don't know that one way or another yet. But one thing is for certain, he's not going to win us any games himself. Brown and Fox were a duo, each needed the other and when Brown left Fox wasn't far behind. The big question we need to answer right now is who is going to be the guy for Doug Christie's Kings? I was pretty lukewarm on Kuminga when the idea was first broached but watching how this off-season has unfolded, yeah I'll take a pissed off and motivated 22 year old with incredible physical gifts who is so willing to bet on himself that he's willing to turn down $75 million to escape being a role-player for Steph Curry in Golden State. He may not end up being the guy himself, but he would help to shift the overall team personality in the right direction.
The main thing I'm worried about with this team is that guys will come in motivated and hungry and ready to work and then they'll get into our locker room and guys will look at them funny. "What are you working so hard for? We're the Kings, we coast out there and then shrug off the losses and say we'll get 'em next time." Who knows what's real and what is PR at this point, but if it's true that some players were bristling at the idea of extra practice while the team was in the midst of a losing streak, then I personally want all of those players gone. They can coast for some other franchise.
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