Kings say they’re more than just a basketball team: ‘It’s a brotherhood’

Bogdan Bogdanovic was trying to keep a straight face during a postgame interview with a Serbian-language TV crew, but Iman Shumpert was a few feet away, offering his own commentary on the unrelated matter of Marvin Bagley III’s Puma underpants.

Meanwhile, De’Aaron Fox was talking about how the Kings mounted a huge second-half surge to race past the Chicago Bulls, but Buddy Hield kept playfully interrupting his answers.

“Quit lying, Fox. Quit lying,” he said.

The Kings (14-12) were in one of those moods after wrapping up a successful four-game trip with a 108-89 victory over the Bulls (6-22) on Monday night at the United Center. The Kings trailed by 12 in the third quarter before outscoring the Bulls 57-26 over the final 20 minutes to finish the trip with a 3-1 record.

When it was over, the Kings adjourned to their locker room to discuss basketball history, philosophy, language and the culture they’re creating in Sacramento. The conversation started with Bagley’s Puma endorsement. It ended with Shumpert — who has already created the Twitter hashtag PurpleTalk and re-branded the team as “The Scores,” for whatever reason — explaining to his young teammates that Michael Jordan’s Bulls often referred to themselves as a “ball club.”

“That’s what we are,” Shumpert said. “We’re a ball club, a professional ball club.”

Just like that, the Kings decided they are no longer just a basketball team.

“We’re a club now,” Willie Cauley-Stein said. “We’re linked. We’re together. Regular teams be on some regular s---, but we ain’t regulars. We’re a club. It’s a brotherhood.”

This is a side of the Kings most people don’t get to see, but the bonding that goes on behind the scenes has been a big part of their turnaround this season.

“You’re in here. You hear us. It’s funny,” Cauley-Stein said. “You’ve got a lot of people in here who are entertainers and it’s fun to be around, and when you’re winning it’s even more fun. That’s what it’s all about, starting a new wave and getting people to ride it. People are starting to jump on, so it’s our job to keep playing good basketball and keep it going.”

The Kings were sloppy and slow in the opening half, but they hit the accelerator after the break, burying the Bulls with a series of defensive stops and a scoring barrage that had the crowd buzzing. Fox and Hield were held to five total points on 1-of-12 shooting in the first half, but the two of them outscored the Bulls 34-33 in the second.

“We knew we had to change something,” Fox said. “We picked up the energy on the defensive end and shots just started falling. It looked like everybody got new legs. It was the last game of the road trip and we just tried to put everything out there.”

Fox was dazzling. He threw down an emphatic transition dunk, hit a series of 3-pointers from all angles and left Bulls fans gasping with a lightning-quick crossover that led to an uncontested floater in the lane.

Fox totaled 25 points, six assists, four rebounds and four steals. Bogdanovic and Bagley scored 16 points apiece, Hield and Shumpert had 14, and Cauley-Stein posted 11 points and 16 rebounds, his ninth double-double of the season.

“De’Aaron Fox, what he did, the difference between the first half and the second half, was awesome,” Kings coach Dave Joerger said. “And we needed that.”

Joerger noted the Kings had a season-high 37 deflections and made three defensive stops in a row seven times in the second half. Fox was credited with seven deflections and had two big steals to get Sacramento’s transition game in gear.

“That’s what I think started the run,” Fox said. “After those two steals, the whole momentum of the game changed.”

“Quit lying, Fox,” Hield joked.

Fox smiled. Everybody else laughed. After 12 consecutive losing seasons, the Kings are finding it’s more fun to win.

“When we’re playing fast and we’re getting stops and shots are going in, I think it’s hard to beat us,” Fox said.

The Kings return to Sacramento to face the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday and the Golden State Warriors on Friday. This brief homestand will mark the start of 13 games in a row against Western Conference playoff contenders, all of which were .500 or better going into Monday’s games.

“We know our schedule is very difficult coming up,” Joerger said.

Cauley-Stein thinks the Kings will be ready.

“We’ve got a strong little ball club here,” he said.

Hield agreed.

“We’ve got to keep going and get better,” he said. “We’re a young group, but we’re going to win games. We’re not trying to win games. We’re going to win games.”