How the Sacramento Kings Transformed into the NBA's Cinderella Team
The Sacramento Kings had a day off in January, and head coach Mike Brown used it as an opportunity to attend his daughter's eighth-grade basketball game. When parents and school staffers began approaching the first-year Kings coach for pictures and autographs, he was met with praise that left him flummoxed.
"They were saying things like, 'The Kings should put a statue of the whole team right in front of Golden 1 Center,'" Brown told Bleacher Report. "I was just caught off guard at first, and then you started to hear that sentiment all the time around the city. I mean, it's incredible, but we haven't done anything yet."
How the NBA's surprise team is doing it, how it came to be and how Capital City is once again enraptured by a Kings squad on the verge of ending a 16-year postseason drought is a fascinating story.
The Kings are 39-26, checked in at second in the Western Conference standings. Despite being known as a defensive maven, Brown is guiding an offensive explosion that erupts for a league-high 121.1 points.
"I tell both of my sons that if you think you know everything about your occupation, then you need to get a new job," Brown said. "Truth is, I've continued learning."
Sacramento finished 12th a season ago at 30-52. Barring an unforeseen calamitous downfall, the purple, black and grey will be a part of the 16-team playoff field.
"Kings fans are so passionate, so that's never changed. But the one difference I recognized is when I go to eat in Midtown and you just see a wall, a random wall somewhere and it has 'light the beam' on it," star Kings guard De'Aaron Fox told B/R. "Or it's a picture of downtown with the beam coming out. That's when I really started to notice we're doing something special once you can literally walk anywhere and you just see a random beam on some random wall or on a random street."
Fox, the longest-tenured member of the Kings, waited six years to experience this level of success in the NBA. All he's known prior to this season was the losing, the coaching and front office turnovers, and the Kings' reputation for not being an attractive destination for top-level players.
"I always wanted to help turn this around, but at the same time, the last two years prior to this season, I didn't know if I would make it past the trade deadline," Fox explained. "There was never a time I wanted to be traded, but I thought I might be moved. I mean, we weren't winning."
The combination of all those negative factors the Kings were embroiled in for years organically produced a nickname known by the fanbase as "The Kangz."
And this season, from the outside looking in, it appeared "The Kangz" were still present when the team got off to an 0-4 start.
"Nah, I knew this was a different team," Fox said. "There was a foundation that was built with this group that no one else could see. I know what losing feels like, and even though we got off to a rough start, I felt like we all were on the same page, and that's the difference."
How did coach Brown get everyone on the same page in just a short period? The secret to the team's success is about to be revealed.
"If you want to win and sustain winning, you have to dig deeper," Brown said. "It's not about trading guys; it's about attacking the culture. There's a blueprint of three principles I wholeheartedly believe in, and I've asked the organization to buy into these concepts prior to taking the job."
1. Vertical and horizontal alignment between all units of the organization, with Brown routinely making himself available to all sectors for collaborative brainstorming.
"Before the season started, I did an impromptu Q&A with the ticket sales team," Brown continued. "I had questions for them and they asked me questions. I'm visible. The more we know of each other, the better we can do our jobs and present our collective visions."
2. Establish principles and values that uphold as well as the team.
"We have to share a set of values we care about on and off the court," Brown added.
3. A signed contract by each player, each member of the coaching staff and owner Vivek Ranadivé pledging to fully commit to your individual assigned roles.
"We had a team dinner at the start of training camp and everyone's specific role was explained," Brown said. "Some guys were not happy with their roles, but if you agreed to honor your role, you signed the contract. No one was forced to do so, but if you signed it, your teammates saw that you made a commitment to fulfill your obligation. So if s--t hits the fan, there is no way to run. You will be held accountable if you stray away from your commitment to the team. When you truly value s--t, you protect it and embrace it. That's what I wanted out of our team. All the players signed it."
Fox recalled that dinner.
"I took from that dinner that if you're going to play this amount of minutes, that amount of minutes and some might not play at all, but it was just letting coach Brown know, letting the entire organization know that you were willing to accept the role," Fox told B/R. "You don't have to be happy about the role, but you were going to be willing to accept the role and then work at it. I think that was big."
There are three framed copies of this contract with signatures included: One hangs on the wall at the team's practice facility, one hangs in the locker room and the other travels with the team on the road just in case a situation causes for a reminder.
"I think it was good for us to hit adversity extremely early on," Fox added. "So now with the commitment contracts, we know how to talk to each other throughout the rest of the year where if someone's not doing something or if we are on a losing streak, then guys know how they can talk to each other and get people to respond."
The Kings are officially the Cinderella team of the league, and fans are starting to get a glimpse of what they are about after defeating the New York Knicks 122-117 Thursday night on TNT.
It was only the Kings' third time playing on either TNT or ESPN this season. But if they continue on an upward trajectory, those national television games will become a staple in Sacramento once again.
"I think our potential is limitless," Fox said. "We know that we can score with anybody. Our season will hang on if we can get stops, and that's something that we're continuing to work on every day. If we become a better defensive team, we could win a championship."
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