Draymond Green isn't a fan of the Kings' victory beam, but De'Aaron Fox is standing up for his team's unique celebration.
The Golden State Warriors forward expressed his disdain for the beam on a recent episode of "The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis."
“You want me to tell you what I f--king hate, Fox?,” Green told Fox and Davis. “I hate that damn beam. I hate the beam, it disgusts me. I get great joy out of it when we play y’all and the beam does not get lit.
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“I’ve also been in a playoff series against you and had to go back to the hotel and look at it until three o’clock in the morning. It’s ridiculous, I hate it.”
The purple beam on the Golden 1 Center roof is illuminated following any Sacramento victory, with the rallying chant of “light the beam” becoming a mainstay for fans since the start of the 2022-2023 NBA season.
Fox is a big fan of the beam, though he and the rest of the Kings were skeptical of it initially.
NBA
“At first [we thought] it was a gimmick, and everybody was like ‘Oh how long is this going to last,’ ” Fox told Green and Davis. “Then it started becoming a thing fans really started liking and other people started hating it, so I think that was the reason that they really kept it. Because other people started hating it everybody's like, ‘Oh it's a gimmick, blah blah blah,’ but I think it's been dope.
“It's a cool thing. You drive around the city, and you go to a random restaurant, and they got some type of beer called the beam or they’ve got a poster with a damn beam on it, so it's been cool for the city.”
In a city historically bereft of major sports teams, the Sacramento point guard loves the fact that the fanbase has rallied around the Kings and the victory beam.
“Obviously, we have the baseball team here this year and we just got an MLS team, but for as long as people can remember, it's just been the Kings,” Fox explained. “So being able to have that for a city that only had one professional team has been dope, and I think it just brings the city together. So if other people hate it, that makes me like it even more.
“When we are in other stadiums and our fans are there and we’re about to win and you start getting those ‘light the beam’ chants, it's dope. I love it.”
Since being selected No. 5 overall in the 2017 NBA Draft, Fox has developed into a franchise cornerstone, helping turn the Kings into a Western Conference contender while snapping a 16-year playoff drought two seasons ago.
Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé and general manager Monte McNair have invested heavily in the team, building a star-laden roster with Fox, Domantas Sabonis and DeMar DeRozan at the core.
With renewed enthusiasm surrounding the team, expect to see a consistent bright purple victory beam emanating from the Golden 1 Center, much to Green's dismay.