Kings' Fox fined $20K for criticizing officials
Warning: Story contains coarse language
De'Aaron Fox has been fined $20,000 for criticizing the officials following the Sacramento Kings' 128-122 loss to the Utah Jazz on Saturday, NBA executive vice president of basketball operations KiKi VanDeWeghe announced Monday.
Fox wasn't happy with what he viewed as inconsistent foul calls, with Utah attempting 13 more free throws than Sacramento. Jazz star Donovan Mitchell went to the charity stripe 17 times, while Fox was given only six free-throw attempts.
"Shit was god-awful," Fox told reporters postgame, including Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. "Mine wasn't even about me getting there and things like that. It was about the calls they were getting on the other end. If you're going to call something on one end, call it on the other end.
"And if somebody's trying to talk to you, you can't get in your feelings so quick to where it's not even a hostile conversation and then you're saying don't talk to you. … I mean, you're coming down guessing on plays where a ball goes out of bounds and they ask you. You don't know what the f--- is going on and you just call something. At least go look at the monitor or something."
Fox finished with a team-high 30 points on 11-of-20 shooting to pair with eight assists and two steals. He's averaging a career-high 24.7 points per game and ranks sixth in the Association in free-throw attempts over 52 appearances in 2020-21.
The loss dropped Sacramento to 22-31 this season. The Kings are three games back of the Golden State Warriors for the final play-in tournament spot in the Western Conference.
Sacramento hasn't made the playoffs since 2005-06, which is the NBA's longest active postseason drought.