There’s a not-so-exclusive club in the NBA. It includes those who have worked for the Sacramento Kings since Vivek Ranadivé’s ownership group bought the team and kept it from relocating to Seattle in 2013.Club members could be former coaches, players, executives or other support staff. They all share a similar tale: Just when you think things can’t get any weirder with the Kings, they will.Colleagues who didn’t get along in Sacramento can agree after their departure that the weirdness makes for some zany situations. I covered the team for more than a decade as a beat writer for The Sacramento Bee and The Athletic, so I’m sometimes included in some of the chats among those no longer tied to the team on a daily basis.Which makes the NBA Finals matchup between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs such a “Kangz” situation. (“Kangz” is a popular way among fans to refer to the team when highlighting their recent history of bad luck and mismanagement.)Former Kings have played prominent roles in helping both the Knicks and the Spurs reach the NBA Finals. De’Aaron Fox was positioned to be Sacramento’s franchise player after being drafted fifth in 2017 — so much so that the Kings, who had the No. 2 pick in the 2018 draft, didn’t select Luka Dončić. Fox was traded to the Spurs last year. Also, Harrison Barnes, acquired via a trade with the Dallas Mavericks in February 2019, was a reliable veteran presence in Sacramento until he was traded to the Spurs in 2024.On the other side, the Knicks are coached by Mike Brown, the last coach to lead the Kings to the playoffs in 2023.It’s become too common lately in Sacramento to see a former King (or, as with Dončić, someone who could have been a King) flourish in the postseason. The Kings are the reality-show contestants looking for love, only to keep picking the wrong partners, then logging on to social media and seeing the contestants they shunned living happy, fulfilling lives with new partners.At this point, that Sacramento show is a rerun. Or a reboot.Michael Malone was the head coach for only 106 Kings games from 2013-14. He won a championship with the Denver Nuggets in 2023.Tyrese Haliburton, the Kings’ first-round pick in 2020, was traded in 2022 and was a Game 7 away from winning the title last year with the Indiana Pacers.Now in 2026, Fox, Barnes and Brown are four wins away from an NBA championship. Brown can lead New York to its first title since 1973. Fox and Barnes can help San Antonio earn its sixth title and first since 2014, the last title of the Tim Duncan/Tony Parker/Manu Ginóbili era.