After falling behind 3-2 and clawing back to force a Game 7, the San Antonio Spurs delivered the final blow on Saturday night, walking away with a 111-103 victory in Paycom Center.
San Antonio won Games 1, 4, 6, and 7 of this series, two of them on the road, and held the Thunder to their lowest offensive output of the entire postseason in their final three wins.
Victor Wembanyama opened the series with a monster 41-point, 24-rebound performance, and finished with the most blocks in a playoff series in 21 years (19). While De’Aaron Fox, brought over last season to be Wemby’s co-star, was cool, calm, and composed, finishing the Game 7 closer with 15 points, five assists, and three steals.
Now, the Spurs are heading to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014, while their opponents, the New York Knicks, just completed a clean four-game sweep in the Eastern Conference Finals to reach their first NBA Finals in 27 years.
Game 1 tips off Wednesday, June 3, in San Antonio.
However, shortly after the Spurs Game 7 win in OKC, attention shifted to another NBA franchise that finished well outside of the playoff picture, the Sacramento Kings.
De’Aaron Fox, the Kings’ former franchise player, played a major role in getting San Antonio to the Finals. Coaching the Knicks, meanwhile, is Mike Brown, who got fired by Sacramento in December 2024, just over a year and a half after leading the Kings to the playoffs and winning NBA Coach of the Year honors.
Now, Fox and Brown are set to face off on basketball’s biggest stage, while the Kings are staring down another losing season.
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When Brown arrived in Sacramento in 2022, the Kings hadn’t made the playoffs since 2006, a 17-year drought that stood as the longest active postseason absence in North American professional sports.
He ended it in his very first season, coaching the team to a 48-win campaign, a No. 3 seed in the West, and a Coach of the Year trophy.
He did it again the following year with 46 wins. Then the Kings fired him, just months after he had signed a multi-year contract extension, too.
Fox’s exit wasn’t any prettier. After the Kings failed to make the playoffs in 2024, Fox passed on a $165 million extension and landed with the San Antonio Spurs at the NBA trade deadline in February, then inked a four-year, $229 million max contract extension that summer.
But this is just the latest chapter in a franchise horror story that stretches back decades.
During the 2002 Western Conference Finals, the Kings were one win away from the NBA Finals with one of the most entertaining teams the league had seen in years, headlined by Chris Webber, Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic, and Doug Christie.
Then Game 6 happened in Los Angeles.
The Lakers staved off elimination behind a dominant 41-point, 17-rebound performance from Shaquille O’Neal and 31 points and 11 rebounds from Kobe Bryant, then closed Sacramento out in Game 7, an overtime gut-punch on the Kings’ own floor.
And so began a downward spiral that they still haven’t fully recovered from over two decades later.
In 2011, Sacramento passed on both Klay Thompson (11th pick) and Kawhi Leonard (15th pick), selecting Jimmer Fredette 10th overall instead. In 2018, holding the No. 2 overall pick, they chose Marvin Bagley III. The next selection was Luka Doncic.
To be fair, the Kings did hit on some drafts, most notably Fox in 2017 and Tyrese Haliburton in 2020, two of the best point guards of their generation.
Of course, neither is on the roster now.
Sacramento traded Haliburton to Indiana in 2022 for Domantas Sabonis, a player who has since emerged in trade rumors of his own, while Haliburton took the Pacers to the NBA Finals just a year ago.
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The Fox-Brown Finals storyline is another reminder that championships are built on smart front office decisions and a little bit of luck. The Kings haven’t experienced either in a long time.
And now, instead of fighting for a championship, Sacramento is fighting for the title as the NBA’s most cursed franchise.
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