Twenty years ago today, Doug Christie punch rocked Rick Fox in Kings-Lakers preseason game
Happy Doug Christie Day, Sacramento.
Twenty years ago today, during a heated exchange in a preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Kings guard Doug Christie chin checked Lakers forward Rick Fox with a stiff uppercut to the jaw.
One of the most memorable moments in a bitter Kings-Lakers rivalry occurred Oct. 25, 2002, less than five months after Los Angeles defeated Sacramento in a hotly contested and controversial seven-game series to win the Western Conference finals. The Lakers would go on to sweep the New Jersey Nets in the NBA Finals to win their third consecutive championship with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.
“There was a lot of venom from the fact that there was a lot of talking going back and forth at that particular time,” Christie, who is now an assistant coach with the Kings, once told Tom Haberstroh of NBC Sports. “And you know, they had won, and I think when you’re competing against someone, you have an idea where you are in the pantheon of that. You know what I mean? And I think they felt us. And I think they might have felt we were a better team than they were.”
Sacramento posted the best record in the league that season, going 61-21 under coach Rick Adelman to claim the No. 1 seed. The Kings were a global phenomenon with Adelman orchestrating a beautiful brand of basketball featuring Mike Bibby, Bobby Jackson, Peja Stojakovic, Chris Webber, Vlade Divac and Christie. Ultimately, Sacramento came up short, and emotions were still running high when the Kings visited the Lakers in a preseason game a few months later.
Just over two minutes had elapsed in the first quarter when Fox was called for an offensive foul after hitting Christie with an elbow. Christie sprang to his feet to confront Fox, who reacted with an open-handed straight-arm to Christie’s face. Christie responded with a swift left uppercut, connecting cleanly with Fox’s jaw.
Both players were ejected, but the fracas continued in the tunnel with players from both teams and Christie’s wife, Jackie, joining the fray.
In 2016, The Ringer ranked the melee as the greatest preseason moment in NBA history.
“When we got to the preseason, you know, they had the (Sacramento) Queens things, and Rick would always do little stuff, and one of them is he would catch the ball at the pinch post, which is the elbow junction, and he would, as you were coming up — now it’s illegal — he would pivot into you and hit my thigh,” Christie said. “And, for me, that’s big because I’m moving around a lot. So, it was just little stuff, and in that particular time, I sold an offensive foul. He hit me and I fell down. So, then, he threw the ball at me and I caught it, so it didn’t really hit me and I caught it. So, as I got up, I hit him in the face with the ball all in one motion, and that’s when he kind of mushed me. As soon as he touched me, I just went ‘Bang.’ That was it.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2022 at 11:06 AM.
