The Sacramento Kings are watching a finals series overflowing with what-if scenarios. Out of them all, the biggest is what would have happened to their franchise if the era of Mike Brown and De'Aaron Fox hadn't been cut short. Fans will never know thanks to the impatience of Vivek Ranadive.
This year's NBA Finals are incredibly complicated for anyone even remotely connected to the Kings. Their former head coach has led the New York Knicks to two victories on the road. On the other hand, their former point guard is helping the San Antonio Spurs fight for their lives from a two-game deficit.
Watching the NBA Finals will hopefully be somewhat of a cathartic moment for the Kings' fans. It's an opportunity to let go of the franchise's past mistakes, some of which have been more recent than others. That includes the loss of both Brown and Fox from the team in the last couple of years.
While moving on is important, it's hard to blame people for wondering about the past. There was an opportunity with Brown and Fox to build something that could have shown real growth for the team. A new era is already being built, but there were intentionally missed opportunities before that.
It was a series of unforced errors from the Kings
After the former owners of the Kings parted ways with the late Rick Adelman as head coach, it took 16 years for Sacramento to get back to the playoffs. That was largely thanks to the leadership of Brown as the head coach and years of hard work from Fox as the starting point guard.
Current co-owner Ranadive and his general manager at the time ultimately fired Brown which in turn led to Fox requesting a trade. What could have been the beginning of something great in Sacramento with the Brown/Fox era was cut short by the impatience of the ownership.
If Ranadive had given Brown time and support, there was an opportunity for the artificially shortened Beam Team era to make something of itself. Well, that's assuming that Brown remained the head coach while an actual rebuild happened. That roster wasn't going to go much further than it did.
At the same time, that doesn't mean there isn't a future in Sacramento. What Scott Perry and, yes, Doug Christie are starting to build around Maxime Raynaud, Nique Clifford, Dylan Cardwell, Devin Carter, Daeqwon Plowden, Precious Achiuwa, and Russell Westbrook has some real potential.
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