Malik Monk’s ‘band-aid gang’ growing stronger for Kings’ TNT game against Brooklyn Nets

Malik Monk’s band-aid brigade was gaining strength as the Kings prepared to face the Brooklyn Nets in a nationally televised game on TNT Tuesday at Golden 1 Center.

The Kings and Kaiser Permanente announced they were teaming up to hand out band-aids to fans as they entered the arena.

“Band-aid gang unite!” the team tweeted. “The Kings and Kaiser Permanente are giving out good luck band-aids to the first 5,000 fans in attendance on Tuesday to support Malik’s new look.”

Monk started wearing band-aids under his right eye after suffering a scratch on the cheek in a Nov. 7 game against the Golden State Warriors. The look has taken on a life of its own in Sacramento with De’Aaron Fox’s wife, Recee Caldwell, encouraging fans to sport band-aids in support of Monk in his long road to recovery.

Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, Stockton Kings assistant general manager Anjali Ranadive, associate head coach Jordi Fernandez and scores of fans wore band-aids to show their solidarity during Sunday’s 122-115 win over the Warriors. Now, Monk’s band-aid gang is gaining strength in numbers and a national audience with Brian Anderson, Stan Van Gundy and Jared Greenberg set to call Tuesday’s game against the Nets.

When The Sacramento Bee asked Kings coach Mike Brown about Monk’s band-aid before Friday’s win over the Los Angeles Lakers, Brown thought back to Nelly, the Grammy Award-winning rapper from St. Louis, Missouri. Nelly famously started wearing a band-aid on his left cheek after suffering a basketball injury, just like Monk.

Brown explained that Kings player development coach Deividas Dulkys, who has young twins at home, gave Monk an assortment of colorful band-aids.

“I think (Dulkys) stole them,” Brown said. “He might be in trouble from his wife because she’s probably looking for band-aids. He goes, ‘I’m going to give these to Malik,’ so I was like, ‘Oh, great.’

“I’ve been seeing him with different ones now. It’s not just the regular band-aid. It’s, like, band-aids with good little characters and stuff on them. Hey, Malik is a different dude, but he’s a fun-loving dude. It fits, for sure.”