De'Aaron Fox Reveals Reasons Around Trade and Texts to Stephon Castle

The NBA trade deadline is a grueling month filled with rumors, stress, high emotions, and an ever-changing landscape of players moving cities and teams.

Those emotions seemed to boil over in Sacramento yesterday as tweets were sent back and forth between De'Aaron Fox and ESPN 1320's Damien Barling. The exchange culminated in Fox posting that "Everybody has the same story about the dysfunction but yeah it's my fault."

The post was later deleted but not before the it caught the attention of the NBA world.

Barling actually stepped out of his radio show as he and Fox connected on the phone, with Fox providing context about what happened during the offseason that led to his desire to be traded and about his comments about his texts with new teammate Stephon Castle.

🤝🏾 https://t.co/9ayV7z9h2d
— De'Aaron Fox (@swipathefox) February 7, 2025

What Happened During the Offseason and with Mike Brown

Mike Brown was given a contract extension this last offseason, but it was anything but a smooth agreement. The talks took weeks before the two sides eventually agreed on a deal.

In his call with Barling, Fox shared two things about the coaching decision. The first was that the Kings front office didn't want to sign Mike Brown to an extension. Second was that he didn't want to play for another coach in Sacramento, which he told the front office.

That ultimately swayed Sacramento's decision to extend Brown, but when the team lost their fifth straight game and fell to 13-18, Mike Brown was let go and Doug Christie was appointed interim head coach.

Fox did not want to leave Sacramento in the summer, which some thought might have been the case, but when Brown was fired, he began to seriously consider leaving the Kings. Between the firing and the team not backing Fox with rumors swirling about how he played a big part in Brown being let go, everything was set in motion.

The rest is history, but the extra details provide context that makes everything come together. The front office knew that Fox didn't want to play for another coach. They made that decision anyway and faced the consequences of their actions, which ended in trading the face of the franchise for Zach LaVine. It's hard to blame Fox for wanting out when his intentions were so clear.

The Texts to Stephon Castle

The other topic that Fox clarified to Barling was his comments about his text exchange with new teammate Stephon Castle, which caught the eye of many (if not all) in Sacramento.

fox said that during all the trade rumors, he texted castle to let him know he didn’t want him to be traded. he wanted to play with him! pic.twitter.com/MRjfBzaoEN
— ⃟⃞ (@wemgoat) February 5, 2025

Those texts to Castle actually came after the trade, which changes everything about the comments and the assumptions that came from the video.

Fox was critiqued for interfering with what the Kings could get back from the Spurs, but in actuality, it was just him showing excitement to play with his new teammate.

Sacramento is a special town, especially when it comes to the Kings. The fans love hard, and when they feel slighted, they fall hard and let their frustrations be known. De'Aaron Fox gave 7.5 years of his life to this franchise and will go down as one of the top players in franchise history, but the time after a breakup, which a trade essentially is, is messy and complicated.

As the dust settles around the trade and both sides move on, these extra details give much-needed context to the happenings around the move. It's unfortunate that things had to end in the way they did, but at the end of the day, it's hard to blame Fox for wanting a change.

What Happened During the Offseason and with Mike Brown

The Texts to Stephon Castle

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