After Fox's previous mistake, Mike Brown was fired.

"I tried to lay it up to go up by three. That would force them to need a three-pointer. OG made a great block."

Following Game 4 of the Finals, Fox, who became the key player in the final 30 seconds, explained his decisive layup. There has been plenty of criticism of Fox over the last couple of days, but in my view, it was simply a misjudgment—Fox thought OG couldn't catch him, but OG did.

Of course, this also shows Fox's lack of basketball IQ. If it were a point guard like Chris Paul or Rajon Rondo, given ten thousand choices, they would never risk that layup. During that play, Fox's first instinct was to go for the layup, whereas a guard with great court awareness would first think about securing possession.

This possession basically reveals what kind of point guard Fox is. Since entering the league, his career-high average in assists per game was 7.3 back in 2019. After 2021, he hasn't managed to average over seven assists per game again. He has never been a floor-general type of guard; his speed has always been among the best in the league, and his first option is usually scoring.

Ironically, Fox was the inaugural Clutch Player of the Year, leading the league in clutch-time scoring with 194 points during the 2022-23 season. The former Clutch Player of the Year, however, has made consecutive mistakes in clutch moments. When the Spurs traded for Fox, they valued his clutch ability.

On the other side, Jalen Brunson was last season's Clutch Player of the Year, yet the two have delivered clutch performances on completely different levels in this series. Fox did hit that crucial mid-range shot in the previous game, but don't forget he shot just 4-for-14 in Game 3, scoring only 12 points.

In Sacramento, he was the undisputed number one option, with priority on every clutch play. But in San Antonio, Fox's confidence in critical moments isn't as strong. In the decisive possession of Game 2 of the Finals, he ran a pick-and-roll with Wembanyama and passed to the popping Wemby, who missed a long two—a shot that should have been Fox's sweet spot.

Every choice comes with a price. When he named San Antonio as his preferred destination, he should have accepted that he was no longer the team's first option. Of course, this sacrifice came with ample compensation: the Spurs gave him a supermax contract worth $260 million over four years, something the Kings were unwilling to offer.

This isn't the first time Fox has made a mental lapse in clutch moments. The most notable recent example I can recall is in December 2024, when the Kings faced the Pistons. Fox committed a 3+1 foul on Ivey in crunch time, leading to the Kings' loss.

After that game, Fox's attitude toward that careless foul was still nonchalant, saying, "It doesn't matter. It's not going to make anyone feel better." In contrast, then-Kings head coach Mike Brown placed all the blame squarely on Fox, reacting with fury:

"When you're up by three at the end of the game, you have to stay glued to your man on the perimeter! I need to go back and see what the hell Fox was doing—he absolutely, positively should not have been in that help position! I even drew it on the whiteboard for them!"

The next day, Brown was fired on the spot after harshly criticizing his star player. Two months later, Fox was also traded by the Kings to the Spurs, with Sacramento receiving only Tre Jones, Zach Collins, and Sidy Cissoko—three role players—plus an unprotected 2027 first-round pick. The root cause of this trade was that Fox didn't get a contract extension promise from the Kings, and he designated San Antonio as his preferred team because his wife is from San Antonio.

When a team's head coach and its franchise player leave in quick succession, it's easy to recall the feud between Jerry Sloan and Deron Williams. But the reality was that the Kings' management was the main source of conflict—Brown and Fox were still having dinner together after Brown was fired.

Fox making it to the Finals could be explained as riding the coattails of others, but Mike Brown leading the Knicks to the Finals truly proved his own ability and also demonstrated how ridiculous the Kings' management is.

After leaving the Kings, Fox landed a huge contract and reached the Finals, while Mike Brown left the Kings to reach the peak of his career, even surpassing his 2007 self. One of these two will definitely win a championship, indirectly proving that good things happen when you leave the Kings.