What Fox hilariously texted Wes Wilcox after 0-4 start to season
What Fox hilariously texted Wes Wilcox after 0-4 start to season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
When the Kings began the 2022-23 NBA season 0-4, basketball fans around the league looked the other way and assumed it would be another year of the same thing in Sacramento.
De'Aaron Fox didn't.
Fox and his wife, Recee, joined NBC Sports California's Morgan Ragan and Deuce Mason on the "Deuce and Mo" podcast and discussed what was going through their minds during the rough start.
"[De'Aaron] didn't freak out. We didn't freak out," Recee said. "Funny story. D texts [Kings assistant general manager] Wes [Wilcox] and says, 'We're going to be fine, thank you for Kevin Huerter.' It was just a simple text. 'We're 0-4, I don't know if you're freaking out but I'm not. So we're going to be fine, but also thank you for Kevin Huerter.'
"Because Kevin came out with a flamethrower. It made [De'Aaron]'s life so much easier."
Following five disappointing seasons in Sacramento, De'Aaron entered his sixth season in the league with an inkling that something would be different.
He was right.
And it started before the season even began.
"Right before training camp, we had most of the guys in town, so we were playing pickup," De'Aaron said. "And I'm like, 'We haven't had this type of talent since I've been here.' So I'm like OK this is definitely going to be different. ... I'm like this can be really, really good. And obviously, we started 0-4, [but] we were in all of the games.
"And then once we got that first win, it kind of lifted off of guys' shoulders, like, 'OK guys we're a good team, we might be in last right now, but we're a good team. It's a long season.' Once we won that first game, I think everybody was like, 'We're a good team. We can be one of the best teams in the league.' "
Following the 0-4 start, the Kings won their first game of the season against the Miami Heat, and a purple-infused laser beam made its debut in the Sacramento skies. That same victory beam was lit 47 more times during the season and became a huge sensation across the basketball world.
And De'Aaron's intuition wasn't too far off, as the Kings snapped their 16-season playoff drought, earned the No. 3 Western Conference playoff seed and took the defending champion Golden State Warriors to Game 7 in a first-round playoff meeting.
With essentially the same group running it back next season, De'Aaron and the Kings look to light their precious beam many more times as they aim to take their newfound success a step further.
