Sacramento Kings’ dysfunction is sad subplot as Spurs face Knicks in NBA Finals
Watching De’Aaron Fox, Harrison Barnes and the San Antonio Spurs meet coach Mike Brown and the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals will be a painful experience for Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive and many of the team’s fans.
Three years ago, the Kings had something special after a short-lived period of stability and sound decisions brought winning basketball back to Sacramento. Three years later, they have reverted to their losing ways after firing Brown and trading Fox amid the same sort of chaos that has impeded the organization for the past 20 years.
The dysfunction that led to the swift and stunning collapse of Sacramento’s original Beam Team will be a minor subplot for national media and a major talking point on local airwaves as the Spurs prepare to host Game 1 on Wednesday. Brown, Fox and Barnes will undoubtedly be asked about their time together in Sacramento.
The Kings will inevitably be criticized for making a series of bad decisions and bum deals while Fox, Barnes and Brown grace the game’s grandest stage a year after being cast off under questionable circumstances. Add them to the list with Tyrese Haliburton, who led the Indiana Pacers to the NBA Finals last season after being traded for Domantas Sabonis, and coach Michael Malone, who won a championship with the Denver Nuggets after being fired by the Kings.
Meanwhile, in Sacramento, the Kings are back in basketball hell after tying for the fourth-worst record in the NBA despite having the league’s eighth-highest payroll.
Light the Beam
Fox came to Sacramento as the No. 5 pick in the 2017 NBA draft. Barnes was acquired in the February 2019 trade that sent Zach Randolph and Justin Jackson to the Dallas Mavericks. Fox endured five losing seasons before the Kings assembled a winning team for the first time since 2006-07.
Sacramento’s fortunes began to change in September 2020 when Monte McNair was hired to replace former general manager Vlade Divac with Wes Wilcox coming aboard as assistant general manager. In the summer of 2022 — after trading for Sabonis in February — the Kings hired Brown, drafted Keegan Murray, traded for Kevin Huerter and signed Malik Monk as a free agent.
In Brown’s first season, the Kings won 48 games to secure the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, ending the longest playoff drought in NBA history after 16 consecutive losing seasons. The Kings led the league in scoring at 120.7 points per game while recording the highest offensive rating in NBA history.
Fox made his first All-Star appearance, earned his first All-NBA honors as a Third Team selection and won the inaugural Clutch Player of the Year award. Brown became the first unanimous winner of the Coach of the Year award.
Harrison Barnes trade
The Kings started making changes after missing the playoffs the following year. Barnes went to San Antonio as part of a three-team sign-and-trade deal that brought DeMar DeRozan to Sacramento.
Under the terms of the deal, the Kings sent Barnes to the Spurs and Chris Duarte to the Chicago Bulls. In addition, they gave an unprotected 2031 first-round pick swap to San Antonio and two second-round picks to Chicago.
Adding DeRozan was supposed to solidify Sacramento as a playoff team in the West, but the fit was questionable from the start despite the greatness he has achieved over the course of his career. What the Kings needed was a bigger, longer, better defender at the power forward spot. Instead, they brought in DeRozan to play small forward, which forced Murray to play power forward. The move contributed to a sharp decline in Sacramento’s 3-point shooting and did not help the Kings defensively.
Firing Mike Brown
After making the playoffs in 2022-23, the Kings came up short the next two seasons, losing in the play-in tournament each year. Brown was fired in December 2024 – six months after receiving a lucrative contract extension through the 2026-27 season – after going 13-18 to start the season.
The organization’s relationship with Brown began to sour the previous summer with contentious contract negotiations. There were also philosophical differences with Brown insisting that the Kings had to get better defensively while McNair kept reiterating the need to rediscover the offensive rhythm they achieved in 2022-23.
Brown was driving to the airport for a team flight to Los Angeles when he was fired over the phone. When asked about Brown’s unceremonious dismissal, Malone said: “No class, no balls. That’s what I’ll say about that.”
Brown compiled a record of 107-88 (.549) during his two-plus seasons in Sacramento. The only other Kings coach to post a winning record during the Sacramento era was Rick Adelman, who died Monday at the age of 79.
De’Aaron Fox trade
Fox and his agent, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, were already signaling their reluctance to renew Fox’s contract with the Kings. Fox said he had hoped to spend his entire career in Sacramento, but he was clearly losing faith in the organization’s direction after it failed to build on the Beam Team’s success.
Before Brown received his contract extension, Fox made it clear to the Kings he did not want to go through another coaching change after playing for Dave Joerger, Luke Walton, Alvin Gentry and Brown over his first seven seasons.
“If Mike gets fired, I’ll be going on my fifth coach,” Fox told ESPN. “And I told them, ‘I’m not going to play for another coach. I’m going to play for another team.’”
On Feb. 2, 2025, the Kings sent Fox to San Antonio in another three-team deal involving the Bulls. Sacramento received Zach LaVine, Sidy Cissoko, three first-round draft picks and three second-round draft picks, although one of the first-round picks was conveyed as two second-round picks due to protections.
While Fox is thriving in San Antonio, Sacramento is struggling after taking on one of the worst contracts in the NBA. If LaVine exercises his $49 million player option for next season, the Kings are projected to have a team payroll of about $225 million, which would put them well over the NBA’s luxury tax threshold of $201 million and above the second apron of $222 million.
