Light the Beam: how the historically awful Kings became the NBA’s feelgood team

T here are the underdogs, and then there are the seemingly cursed. Those franchises who lead a sisyphean existence, one in which they are always the butt of the joke. Until this season, the Sacramento Kings could be described as the latter. Several teams that were founded more recently have a worse win percentage, but the Kings have the most losses in NBA history, with just north of 3,200. While pundits generally approved of their off-season moves this past summer, few would have predicted Sacramento would be third in the Western Conference at the end of March. These are not your mom’s Sacramento Kings. So how did they turn it around?

It’s pretty rare for historically underperforming and mismanaged franchises to take big swings, and see them work out (see the Minnesota Timberwolves’ chips-into-the-center push on Rudy Gobert). And the Kings faced a fair amount of pushback when they sent their stellar young point guard Tyrese Haliburton to the Indiana Pacers for big man Domantas Sabonis. But this was one of the even rarer occurrences when the momentous trade not only worked out for the Kings, but seemed to be a win-win for both sides. Haliburton is thriving on the Pacers, and Sabonis achieved the Kings’ goal of unlocking their franchise cornerstone, speed-demon point guard De’Aaron Fox.

The chemistry between the two is electric, and Fox has said that Sabonis is the best screen setter he’s ever played with. After years of criticism for underachieving, it seems all Fox really needed was a better-suited running mate and supporting cast. And a change of scenery has proved fruitful for Sabonis as well, vaulting him into the conversation for All-NBA. It has also landed him on a team that will finish in the top-three in their