Bagley faces harsh backlash for liking negative Kings tweet originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
Marvin Bagley III has found himself on an island this week. The Kings’ forward followed in his father’s footsteps on Wednesday night, liking a tweet from a random fan saying, “We’ve got to get @MB3Five outta Sac man.”
It didn’t take long for Kings fans to pile on the former No. 2 overall pick from the 2018 NBA Draft. Bagley responded by removing any mention of the Sacramento Kings from his bio on both Twitter and Instagram.
Former NBA hooper Richard Jefferson took Bagley to task on The Jump on Friday, dropping the hammer on the 22-year-old big.
“Hey Bagley, I love you, you’re a Phoenix kid, I’ve known you since Day 1,” Jefferson said. “They didn’t hurt your hand. They didn’t make you pull out of USA basketball, they didn’t hurt your foot…and, the Sacramento Kings will look out for you more than any franchise you go. They are vested in your success. Don’t forget that young fella.”
The road for Bagley in Sacramento hasn’t gone as planned. As members of his 2018 draft class like DeAndre Ayton, Luka Doncic and Trae Young are finding tremendous success, Bagley has missed 48 percent of his games through three seasons.
Not only has Bagley sat out a 108 out of a possible 226 games, but he’s posted nearly identical numbers in each of his three seasons in the league. He’s stuck in neutral and clearly would like a fresh start elsewhere.
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Jefferson wasn’t the only media personality to unload on Bagley over the last few days. Kenny Caraway, who has a daily sports talk show alongside Damien Barling on ESPN 1320 in Sacramento, took Bagley to task.
“He’s already played a hand in getting one coach fired (Dave Joerger), him not being around, him not being able to perform the way he was expected to as a No. 2 pick in the draft has another coach (Luke Walton) on the hot seat, and he’s already got a general manager (Vlade Divac) fired because he picked him,” Caraway said. “He picked him and he lost his job.”
Bagley is entering the final year of his rookie-scale contract in Sacramento and is owed $11.3 million next season. Instead of negotiating a contract extension, it appears that the Kings and Bagley are heading towards a messy divorce.
Can the Kings find value in a trade for the very talented, but injury plagued young player? Can someone step in and mend fences?
This is turning into an ugly situation in Sacramento, but one that should figure itself out in the coming weeks as we head towards the NBA Draft on July 29.