Sacramento Kings star guard De’Aaron Fox has been named the first winner of the NBA Clutch of the Year.
The 25-year-old beat veterans Miami Heat’s Jimmy Butler and Chicago Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan with 91 of the possible 100 first-place votes from writers and broadcasters who cover the NBA.
Fox is also the first Kings player who won an individual title since Tyreke Evans back in 2010 for the Rookie of the Year award.
He will bring home the inaugural Jerry West Trophy. The award was named after the Los Angeles Lakers legend of the same name, who earned the nickname “Mr. Clutch” during his career.
“You can’t be afraid to fail,” Fox said on Tuesday’s TNT broadcast, as per AP. “Obviously, you’re not going to make every shot, but my teammates, my coaches, they put me in position to succeed. So the least I can do is have confidence in myself to take good shots.”
The All-Star guard led the league with 194 clutch points, followed by DeRozan with 159 clutch points this season and Butler with 151.
The NBA gives its definition for a clutch player as the “player that delivers most when the game is on the line,” and a “clutch time” is “the final five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime when the score is within 5 points.”
Fox also led the league in terms of points scored in the final three minutes of three-point games. According to Yahoo Sports’ Jason Owens, the former Kentucky Wildcat recorded 103 points, ahead of DeRozan’s 82 and Butler’s 71.
Fox blossomed this season as he averaged 25 points, six assists and four rebounds per game while helping Sacramento to its first playoff appearance since 2006. The Kings were out of the playoffs for 16 seasons, the longest postseason absence in major U.S. professional sports.
The NBA will continue to name the winners of this season’s individual awards shortly following Memphis Grizzlies’ Jaren Jackson Jr as the Defensive Player of the Year on Monday.
The finalists for Coach of the Year are Sacramento’s Mike Brown, Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault or Boston’s Joe Mazzulla. For the Sixth Man of the Year, the nominees are Boston’s Malcolm Brogdon, Milwaukee’s Bobby Portis Jr. or New York’s Immanuel Quickley. These two awards will be announced on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.
The most anticipated MVP award, Most Improved Player and Rookie of the Year are still in the voting process.
Kings v.s. Warriors
For the first round, the Kings are facing Stephen Curry and the defending champions Golden States Warriors. At the time of writing, Sacramento is leading 2-0.
In a truly clutch fashion, Fox scored 15 points in the fourth quarter of Game 1 and 11 points in the final quarter of Game 2. The latter game got heated at Golden 1 Center as Draymond Green was later ejected for a flagrant foul against Domantas Sabonis with 7:03 to play in the fourth quarter, and Sacramento never looked back after that.
“I think that brought us together,” Fox said following the victory. “We huddled up and were like, ‘We have to win this game.’ Everybody thought he’d be ejected. When that happens, usually that team comes together and goes on a run. But we were able to negate that.”
Fox is averaging 31 points in these two games so far, and he recorded 24 points, nine assists, five rebounds and four steals in Game 2.
Fox did not want to take everything for his own. He preferred to share it with his team for this season’s outstanding performance.
“My teammates and my team put me in position to succeed,” he said.
The Kings will travel to Chase Center, San Francisco, for Game 3 on Thursday night.
