By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
Young point guard De’Aaron Fox’s major leap to superstar status this year will finally be formalized after the NBA announced that he will be the first-ever recipient of the Clutch Player of the Year award.
The NBA made it official last April 19, 2023, after announcing Fox as the inaugural winner of the award voted by over 100 sports writers and sports broadcasters.
Aside from ending the 16-year NBA playoff drought of the Sacramento Kings franchise, Fox will also be highlighting his stellar season with a trophy named after Los Angeles Lakers’ legend Mr. Jerry West, the tagged “Mr. Clutch” of the league.
Fox got the better of Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler and DeMar DeRozan of the Chicago Bulls after hitting a total of 194 clutch shots in the whole 2022-2023 regular season.
According to the criteria, a shot will be considered clutch when it is drained in the final five minutes of the game.
Also, both teams must be in a tightly-contested ball game where the margin between the two will have to be decided by five points or less.
As a result of Fox’s streak of clutch performances in 39 exact games, the Kings ended the regular season with an impressive 48-34 win-loss record and are the third-seeded team in the ongoing NBA playoffs.
As surprising as it looks, Fox and Sacramento are leading their first-round series matchup against the defending champions Golden State Warriors, 2-0.
Fox is also leading the Kings in scoring in the first two games against the more experienced Golden State team and dropped 38 points in the first game and 24 markers in Game 2.
Proof of Fox’s clutch genes was during the back-and-forth Game 2 against the Warriors where he scored a floater in the lane and the cold-blooded trey from the top of the key to silence Golden State and extend their lead to six points with only two minutes left in the game.
Can Fox continue his consistent fine play and lead the Kings to one of the best upsets in NBA playoff history?
