Kings’ star De’Aaron Fox missed the final 11 games of the season after injuring his right hand against the Milwaukee Bucks on Mar. 16 on a play involving Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Fox discussed the painful details of the injury to reporters this week, calling Antetokounmpo a “strong motherf--ker.”
“I thought I hit his knee, but I actually got my hand on the ball,” Fox said. “The ball went straight through my hand. It just stretched out ligaments and it was fat. I literally couldn’t see the bones and everything on my hand.”
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Fox somehow managed to finish the game even after the injury occurred early in the first quarter and scored 21 points with seven assists and four rebounds.
“The next day, I was like, ‘I didn’t even know how I finished that game,’” Fox said.
Fox said that Bucks guard Jrue Holiday knew his right hand was hurt and that he couldn’t dribble with it.
“He was just playing me on my left side,” Fox said.
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Fox said that he couldn’t even dribble until a couple of weeks later. He said he was probably ready to play on Mar. 26, when the Kings were in Orlando facing off against the Magic. But he didn’t return to the lineup for the rest of the season, as the Kings missed the playoffs for the 16th straight season.
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“Before that, I couldn’t dribble the ball at all,” Fox said. “I could’ve been a spot-up shooter. That’s probably all I could’ve done. But I would say I’m feeling much better now and obviously going through rehab and stuff and trying to get back on the court as soon as possible.”
Despite missing the last few weeks of the season, the 24-year-old Fox still led the Kings in scoring with 23.2 points per game in 59 games. And it sounds like he’ll definitely be back to 100 percent by next season.