5 People who turned their backs on the Sacramento Kings

Professional sports are largely based on trust and loyalty. Organizations have to trust that their (star) players have faith in the process and will stay loyal to the franchise for as long as it makes sense for them. 

Players, in turn, have to trust that coaches and front office officials are committed to doing what is best for the team and their players. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work out, and it can cause people to turn their backs on their teams.

It has happened to pretty much every NBA franchise ever and the Kings are no exception. So, let’s look at five people who turned their backs on the Sacramento Kings. 

5. Dewayne Dedmon

Dewayne Dedmon had quite the NBA journey. After he initially went undrafted in 2013, he played for the Warriors, the 76ers, the Magic, the Hawks, the Kings, and the Heat before landing in the G League. 

The best years of his career were undoubtedly from 2017-19 in Atlanta when he became a double-digit scorer and solid floor spacer. The Kings needed that. They wanted a big, who could hit threes, to paint with Marvin Bagley III. 

Thus, the Kings signed Dedmon to a three-year $40 million deal in the 2019 offseason. Things didn’t work out as well as imagined, however. Dedmon only shot 19.7 percent from three, Bagley went down with an injury early in the season, which ruined the imagined pairing that brought the big man to Sacramento, and Richaun Holmes eventually took Dedmon’s spot. 

He was visibly and understandably frustrated. In late December of 2020, for example, he was the only player who didn’t see the court in a blowout loss to the Clippers. As a result, Dedmon decided to turn his back on the Kings and publicly voiced his desire to leave. 

The league fined him $50,000 for the public trade request in January 2020, and just a month later, he was moved back to the Hawks.