When the final buzzer sounded on Sunday in Sacramento, players like Steph Curry, Draymond Green, De’Aaron Fox and Malik Monk shared hugs after a hard-fought series.
The Northern California showdown was a see-saw affair from Game 1 and fittingly had to be decided in seven games. While Steph showed the world once again why he’s one of the greatest – putting the Warriors on his back with an epic 50-piece – Fox and the Kings deserve their flowers.
It’s been a remarkable turnaround for the franchise the past year under the direction of Mike Brown, who reshaped the program after being Steve Kerr’s top confidant the past few seasons.
While he might have been upset with Kings big man Domantas Sabonis for not shaking his hand, Draymond gave Sacramento a lot of love after the back-and-forth series.
Draymond and Fox might have got double technicals for chirping at each other in Game 4, but it’s all just part of the competition.
“Just paid my respects,” Green said of his handshake with Fox. “I’ve been in a lot of playoff series against a lot of different guys. And if I’m honest, you leave most with less respect for a lot of guys. Whether it’s how they act in the moment, whether it’s how they step up to the pressure. I’ve a lot of respect for the guys over the years in the playoffs. And then there’s some that you gain respect for. There’s some that you see and you know you’re cut from the same cloth you feel like you’re cut from. Fox is one of those guys.
“Obviously, he’s on the wrong end of it. We’ve been there before. I’ve been to a Game 7 and I lost in the first round. My second year in the league (in 2014) we did that against the Clippers. It’s a part of it. You have to go through that to ultimately be a part of where you wanna go. I was really just showing my love and respect for him as a competitor. I was honored to compete against him in this series.”
Fox illustrated what Green was talking about in his postgame comments on Sunday. The 25-year-old, who was an absolute menace before getting slowed down by a broken finger in Game 5, noted how players like Sabonis (26), Malik Monk (25), Kevin Huerter (24) and Keegan Murray (22) are all still young players. You can see the nucleus forming in Sacramento.
You can see the steely confidence Fox possesses that made him the NBA’s Clutch Player of the Year.
“We have guys who are not even close to their prime, we have guys who are in the first and second years, we have guys who aren’t on their second contracts yet who are playing big minutes,” Fox said. “We, as a team, have a ways to go. Yeah, we lost in seven games to the defending champs. You’d rather have it that way than not make the playoffs. This is something you wanna be able to build off of. You talked about it before. Some teams have had this and you fall off. Or some teams have had this and you keep going up.”
Brown is clearly the right guy for the locker room, too, as his remarkable turnaround job earned him NBA Coach of the Year honors. Klay Thompson made sure to give Brown a shoutout on Sunday after the series.
“I just gotta give Mike B and their coaching staff and their players a ton of credit,” Klay said. “They pushed us to the brink. Mike B's got those guys playing incredible ball on both sides of the floor. I know they have a bright future here. They’re star players are very young. I just know the Kings franchise is in good hands with Mike Brown at the helm.”
Northern California had never seen the two franchises in the playoffs simultaneously before 2023. We’ll have to see how it all plays out in San Francisco, but Sacramento looks poised to be a force in the West for years to come.
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