Sacramento Kings: Tyrese Haliburton is already becoming a fan favorite

The Sacramento Kings selected Tyrese Haliburton in last week’s NBA Draft, and the newcomer is already stealing the hearts of the fan base.

Sacramento is not your typical NBA city. A small market in every sense of the word, there are no flashing lights or stadium marquees. It is the third biggest market in its own state, forever in the shadows of Lakers and Warriors of the world. But the city and Sacramento Kings fans alike are passionate and hardworking. They appreciate a blue-collar attitude and work ethic and are willing to adopt players who have those traits as fan favorites.

It does not take much to get on the good side of the Kings fan base. Expectations on the court are typically rather low, and the lack of national media coverage keeps any kind of drama from being an issue. The small-town vibes help create a level of intimacy between player and fan that is rare throughout the league.

There are only a few boxes that you have to check to become a Sacramento Kings fan favorite, and first-round pick Tyrese Haliburton is well on his way to becoming just that.

Step 1: Want To Be A Sacramento King

You know you’re living in Basketball Hell when all you have to do to become liked is pretend to want to be there.

The Kings have the deserved reputation of a lowly, doormat franchise that some players avoid like the plague. Whether it is Willie Cauley-Stein throwing shade in interviews after being let go, or Chris Webber crying as he looked out the window of the airplane after being traded to the Kings, seeing nothing but fields and pastures for miles, Sacramento has negative notoriety as a destination. But within a span of 24 hours last week, Tyrese Haliburton checked off the first box on the fan-favorite list…twice.

Shortly after he was drafted last Wednesday night, Haliburton gave his media availability via Zoom interview. When asked about the Kings franchise itself, the rookie dropped some impressive knowledge. After acknowledging his youth, Haliburton fired off the entire starting five of the 2002 Sacramento Kings without a hiccup. He listed them fluidly as if he genuinely possessed the knowledge and didn’t google it five minutes before the interview. Not bad for a kid who was in diapers during that playoff run.

The next day, in an interview on Zach Lowe’s podcast, Jonathan Givony said that Haliburton falling to the Kings was “by design.” Agents were apparently telling teams in the top ten not to draft their clients, and that Haliburton actually preferred Sacramento. “He could have gone sixth, I think, if he had wanted to,” Givony went on to say, “He said ‘Let me sacrifice $7, 8 million because I think it’s going to work out with Sacramento in the long run’.”

This is an absolute bombshell for Kings fans. After nearly two decades of having agents and draftees openly avoid coming to the California capital, it is almost unbelievable that Haliburton preferred our franchise over other destinations. A guy can interview well and say all the right things, but to have someone essentially choose your team out of the bunch when you’ve been overlooked and chastised for years is downright endearing to a fan base.

Haliburton checks the first box and then checks it again for good measure.