De'Aaron Fox choosing to lead Kings in his own way

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SACRAMENTO -- 3.8 seconds on the clock. A release that left the hands of Chimezie Metu with just ticks left. A celebration that spilled all over the court. A win.

While the Sacramento Kings mobbed Metu and celebrated a 95-94 victory over the Dallas Mavericks, the man who made it happen quietly went about his business.

It takes a lot of guts to fling a bullet pass to a 26 percent 3-point shooter with the game on the line. Maybe more than guts, it takes someone who believes in his teammates. 

Metu is the hero, but it was De’Aaron Fox who blew around his man. It was Fox who had a clear run at the rim, which forced Dwight Powell to commit as a help defender. It was Fox who fired the perfect pass and Fox who would have taken all of the blame if Metu was offline. 

“It feels great, it feels great,” Metu told media members following the win. “They’ve been the ones telling me to keep shooting it, so for him to then make the play it feels great to know they actually believe and trust in the work that I’m putting in.”

According to Metu, Fox had told him earlier in the season in a similar situation that if he was open, to expect a pass. When the opportunity came around again, there was no hesitation from either player. Even the slightest delay and the Kings left the floor with a loss.

“Mezie made a big shot out of the corner, but it was Fox’s assist that really made the play,” interim head coach Alvin Gentry said after the game. 

Fox’s leadership has been a topic of discussion this season. It’s talked about on sports radio and written about in print, blogs and on social media. 

As the highest paid player in franchise history, there are expectations of Fox. With the team struggling under .500 once again, there is a perception that he isn’t living up to those expectations and now Fox is becoming the poster child for all that ills a Kings franchise perpetually foundering.  

“With great power, comes great responsibility” is the watered down version used in Spiderman movies, but the original quote from Winston Churchill adds layers to this discussion. “Where there is great power there is great responsibility, where there is less power there is less responsibility, and where there is no power there can, I think, be no responsibility.”

If Metu misses that shot, some of the finger pointing would have been aimed at Gentry, but the brunt of it would have come Fox’s way. As a league minimum player trying to carve out his niche in the league, Metu has no power and in turn, no responsibility. 

By NBA standards, great power typically equates to great pay. It also means that you are the face of the franchise and for better or worse, you are the player that draws all of the attention, both positive and negative. 

Fox is not the type of leader that some people want. And with the Kings mired in another losing season, he is now the focus of the vitriol from the fanbase. There are even some folks who believe he should be traded.

RELATED: Ep. 21 of The Kings Beat Podcast: Chimezie Metu comes through 

The fact is, the Kings made Fox the face of the franchise long before his paycheck jumped from $8 million to $28 million. He was still a 170-pound spiky haired 19-year-old when the franchise completely shifted gears and put him on posters around the building.

This is what the Kings do. From the Tyreke Evans’ “20-5-5” rookie season to the “Here we Rise” campaign to “super team, just young,” Sacramento puts an enormous amount of pressure on young players to be something they may never be capable of becoming. 

It’s a distractionary tool that the franchise uses to sell tickets and mask another losing season that is coming your way. Banking on kids in their late teens or early 20s to change the fortunes of a franchise is not good business.  

Fox has lost some of the cockiness and brashness that we saw in his first season or two in the league, but he’s also no longer a teenage millionaire living the single life. He has a fiancé. He’s settled down. He’s growing into a man and he’s also caught in the middle of a global pandemic like the rest of us.

With age and experience has come a calmer, more mature personality. He’s never been one who is 100 percent comfortable talking to the media, and his mood swings this season in post game interviews haven’t done him any favors, but the real question is how Fox deals with his teammates behind the scenes and whether they believe he is a player they will follow. 

He’s not the loudest guy in the room. That’s Tristan Thompson. He doesn’t talk the most. That’s Buddy Hield. He’s not the heart and soul of the team. That’s Richaun Holmes. He’s not the most diplomatic. That’s Harrison Barnes.

What is Fox? He’s the team’s best player. 

You can say that he’s a losing team’s best player, but that’s not all on him. He plays for a historically bad franchise and while the improvement hasn’t led to a postseason berth, the Kings have been better in the De’Aaron Fox era than any other era in the last 15 seasons of futility.

Fox shouldn’t try to be something he is not. That would be disingenuous. At the same time, assuming that he isn’t a leader because he’s not screaming at the top of his lungs at his teammates and brow beating them when they make mistakes, is also disingenuous. 

Not everyone leads in the same way, whether it’s basketball, in your standard 9-5 job or if you are running a country. 

“Everybody is not a real vocal leader,” Gentry said. “You don’t have to be a rah-rah guy, but I think our guys know that they can depend on him, No. 1 and that he’s going to make the right play. And he’s also a very bright basketball mind.”

“Like I said, everybody is not a rah-rah type leader, but that doesn’t mean that they’re not a good leader,” Gentry added.

Fox is reserved. He’s a player who prefers to let his play talk. He’s a guy who empowers his teammates in conversations and personal moments. 

“The biggest thing for me was when Fox came back in the game against Memphis, we had talked a little bit going into the game, but right before the starting lineups, he turned and he tapped me and was like, ‘keep doing what you’re doing,’” Haliburton said following the Kings’ win over the Thunder on Tuesday. “That was big for me I think confidence wise, but at the same time, to know that my running mate, the guy next to me, is telling me to keep doing the same thing. I think that helped me a lot as well.”

These are the moments that have value. Again, it may not be some grand gesture in front of a crowd that draws attention, but it’s Fox’s way of giving his teammates a boost.

“I want what’s best for everybody,” Fox said. “I want everybody to play at their peak level. I think we all know what Tyrese is able to do, so I don't want him to change that just because I’m on the floor.”

Could the Kings use a player that not only has a booming voice in the locker room, but also plays a substantial role on the floor? Yes, every team can use a Draymond Green type player behind the scenes and on the court.

Sacramento doesn’t have that guy and neither do plenty of other teams around the league. The Kings searched for that guy for years and it’s much harder to find that type of personality than it seems.

Trying to place blame on a player for being who he is and not who you want him to be doesn’t help anyone. Fox will continue to mature. He will continue to take strides as a leader and a player. It will come at his pace and it is on the franchise to put pieces around him that support the areas where he has a deficiency. 

Keep in mind that the losing culture in Sacramento was around long before Fox was selected with the No. 5 overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. The struggle to turn things around has bested multiple owners, general managers, coaches and players over the last decade and a half.

Turning this ship around will take all kinds of players and personalities. It’s not likely to come in one neatly packaged superstar who walks in the door and delivers a 50-win season. Fox is a piece to the puzzle and a very good one at that. Embrace who he is, not who he isn't or who you want him to be.