Like most of us last fall, Sacramento Kings guard De'Aaron Fox found himself with very few places to go and even fewer people to see.
He'd returned from the NBA bubble in Orlando in August with a sour taste in his mouth after the Kings failed to make the playoffs, and he was itching to get back on the court.
The team's training facility was open, but with strict health and safety protocols. Interactions were very limited. And the only people in his bubble at his new house in the Sacramento area were his fiancée, Recee Caldwell, and longtime friend Reno Dupor.
But in Fox's mind, these were advantages, not limitations.
"Going into the offseason, I knew exactly what I needed to work on," Fox said. "And that's pretty much what we did day and night: working on my body, shooting the ball, just putting in extra work."
Every day was the same: Wake up, eat, go to the team gym around 10 a.m., play and train all day, eat, rest, head back to the gym at night for shooting drills, eat again. At night he'd wind down with video games or whatever show Caldwell had picked out for them to binge watch together. ("Scandal" and "How to Get Away With Murder" were two favorites.)
"Even before COVID, our life was basically the exact same," Dupor said. "We really don't go out, and we're always just at the gym or home, so I think it probably was just easier for him this year than anything."
Easier to focus on what needed to be done to make the leap from promising young player to potential All-Star averaging the 22.3 points and 7.1 assists per game worthy of the five-year, $163 million maximum contract he'd end up signing in November.
But not exactly easy workouts.
In addition to strength training and on-court work with Kings coaches Luke Walton, Alvin Gentry, Jesse Mermuys and Lindsey Harding, Fox subjected himself to shooting drills and workouts run by Caldwell, a former WNBA and Team USA player who'd worked in player development with both the Washington Wizards and Golden State Warriors.
"She can definitely still play," Fox said. "And she lets me know if I'm not shooting the right way."
They'd start with a warm-up of 100 makes.
"I never was a believer in shots. I'm a believer in makes," Caldwell said with a laugh. "We're learning how to make jumpers."
Then they'd go through an assortment of shots from seven different spots on the court. Dribble right, shoot. Dribble left, shoot. Pull-ups, step-backs, coming off screens or middle pick-and-rolls. Then between-the-legs 3s, behind-the-back 3s, step-back 3s. Sometimes they'd compete against each other. But always, they kept going until Fox made 400 shots.
"I don't know how many people would allow their fiancée to work them out," Caldwell said. "But it was never an issue for him.
"I know it helps because I'm competent and I've worked with NBA teams. I've done it, so he's looking at me like, OK, she has done it before, she knows how to shoot. But even then, I think a lot of people's egos would have been like, 'I don't want my girl telling me that my guide hand is on it,' or 'She doesn't like the way I'm picking up the ball to take a shot.'"
But Fox has always taken coaching from the women in his life. His mom, Lorraine Harris-Fox, still holds the highest career free throw percentage (92.8%) at Arkansas Little-Rock, where she played in the 1980s. She started him out playing as a toddler, helped coach him through middle school and still watches every game he plays -- even when it means sitting in her car with the heater on as the power was off at the family's Houston-area home this past week.
These days she keeps her comments all positive, unless the topic is free throw shooting -- which Fox still needs to improve on (he's 67.9% from the line).
"I've always told him, 'You need to get a rhythm and stick with it. Don't change it every year. If you're going to take two dribbles and a deep breath, or whatever, then do that all the time. Don't do that one time and then just get the ball and shoot it the next time,'" Harris-Fox said. "Free throws are muscle memory. It's a rhythm. Even though some guys have crazy routines, that's their routine."
Which is remarkably similar to the thinking behind the routine Caldwell put him through in the offseason as he worked to improve his shooting.
"I'm 5-9, so that's a pretty good-sized point guard, but I'm not quick at all," Caldwell said. "So I had to be skilled and intelligent."
Her father, former Texas Tech assistant coach Ray Caldwell, put her through the same drills growing up -- only she had to make 500 shots a day.
"My dad made sure that I was able to shoot it from legitimately anywhere on the floor," she said. "So the fact that I could mix in what I was raised on, with De'Aaron's speed and natural talent, I was like, 'Wow, we can really make a monster.'"
This might sound like an updated version of the 2000 classic "Love & Basketball."
"No," Caldwell joked. "I would like to say that we're the healthier version because if you really break down that movie, Quincy did Monica wrong."
She's right. It takes Quincy, played by Omar Epps, most of the movie to appreciate that his girlfriend, WNBA player Monica Wright, played by Sanaa Lathan, is just as determined and competitive as he is.
Fox needed no such convincing. When he was a rookie, Fox rented a car on an off day in Dallas so he could drive to Waco, Texas, for Caldwell's last collegiate game. When they play NBA 2K, he often chooses to play as WNBA star A'ja Wilson. He says they go everywhere and do everything together. And when his career is over, he's often told her, he wants to be a stay-at-home dad for their children, so she can chase her dream of working in an NBA front office.
"Luke [Walton] has made little comments here and there, like, 'Hey, whenever you want a job, you need to tell me,'" Caldwell said. "And De'Aaron hears this and he's like, 'Take it, take it.'"
For now, though, she's focusing on helping Fox reach his potential -- watching film with him, cooking four meals a day so he can put on muscle and making sure he doesn't stay up too late playing video games -- while pursuing her dreams by studying for the LSAT, learning from Kings COO Matina Kolokotronis and preparing to attend McGeorge Law School in the fall.
Walton and assistant coach Harding are in regular communication with Caldwell and Dupor. So are Fox's parents, agent Chris Gaston and Fox's high school coach, Emmanuel Olatunbosun.
"We've got a group text message going every game," Olatunbosun said. "If [Fox] ever looked at the phone during halftime, he'd kill us.
"But look, everybody around him are basketball heads. We all love the game, and we're not shy about telling him how we feel -- which is really cool to be able to deal with somebody who's open to hearing it."
There is a general theme to their advice, too.
"He's such an unselfish guy sometimes," said Gaston, who trained Fox since he was 13 and became his agent in 2019. "He still is, but he's also learning how to take over and be more aggressive."
That is what the Kings are paying him to do now, after agreeing to the max contract this past fall and empowering him to be the face of the franchise.
"He wasn't like, 'I got my max contract, let me chill and relax,'" Gaston said. "He was like, 'It's time to go even harder now, to prove that I am a max player, that these guys didn't make a mistake.'"
Even Fox's celebration of the new extension was muted.
"We definitely hugged, but I don't remember if he said anything," Dupor said. "I think we just went around the corner to pick up some brisket burgers from this place we like."
The next morning, he was back in the gym to work out, eat, lift and make 400 shots.
"A big part of the success he's having this year is the work he put in this offseason," Walton said. "It was the most I've ever seen him. Committed in the weight room, committed to his offseason basketball work. So when I saw the way he was working this summer, I knew it was going to be a matter of time before we start seeing it in games."
Unlike his first season in the league in 2017-18, when the Kings tried to surround their No. 5 overall pick with veterans like George Hill, Vince Carter and Zach Randolph, Sacramento decided to build its team around Fox.
"I think part of it is just the natural process of being a young point guard, which is the hardest position in the league to play," Walton said. "Normally it takes two, three, four, five, sometimes six, seven years. At the end of last year, he really started to come into his own before the shutdown happened.
"So after seeing the way he worked and trained in the offseason, I was fairly confident at some point we were going to start to see him take that next step. And as soon as he's done it, obviously our team has started having a lot more success."
After a slow start, the Kings started rolling at the end of January, winning seven of eight games to improve to 12-11 and sniff the Western Conference playoff race. Fox was named the conference's Player of the Week on Feb. 9 after averaging 31 points and 8.8 assists during wins over the Pelicans, Celtics, Nuggets and Clippers. They've since lost seven straight to fall to 12-18, as injuries and a lack of depth have led to inconsistent play.
"From a vocal standpoint, he's embracing the leadership role. He's saying things in timeouts and then coming out and doing them on the court offensively and defensively." Luke Walton on De'Aaron Fox
"From a vocal standpoint, he's embracing the leadership role," Walton said. "He's saying things in timeouts and then coming out and doing them on the court offensively and defensively."
Against the Pelicans, Walton remembers hearing Fox tell his teammates they needed to get stops and hold New Orleans to 15 points in the quarter if they wanted to win the game. He started switching onto All-Star forward Brandon Ingram and double-teaming Zion Williamson as the Kings rallied from down 10 points to win by six. Fox finished with 38 points and 12 assists.
In the fourth quarter of a Feb. 7 win against the Clippers, Fox asked for the defensive assignment on Clippers guard Lou Williams, and scored 10 of his 36 points.
"I think it's my job to try to shut their water off or just try to make it tough for them," Fox said. "Because if my team sees me doing that, then no one has an excuse not to be doing that."
They were big moments for both Fox and the Kings -- but also teachable ones.
"When they went on that string of games where they won seven of eight and he won Player of the Week, he was like, 'You see? When we win, the accolades start coming,'" Caldwell remembered. "And I was like, 'You mean, when you lead your team to win?'"
At first Fox was confused. But Caldwell had a point to make.
"I told him: 'You're literally forcing your team to be like, I am not losing tonight. The next step is when you're able to do that for a whole season.'"
And Fox has always hated losing.
"His brother used to kick his butt playing chess," Caldwell said. "And this man hates losing so much, he went on YouTube and learned how to play chess. His brother hasn't won since."
Even as a toddler, Fox didn't handle losing well.
"If you didn't let him win, he would pretty much make you play until he'd win," his mother said. "He would get highly upset if he didn't win."
The Kings went 97-139 in Fox's first three seasons. They haven't made the playoffs since 2006. But Fox is determined to change that.
"I'm always telling him, 'Your whole staff believes in you,'" Caldwell said. "They gave you a max contract. And Luke is literally giving you the keys to the car.
"No one else is giving their young players freedom like that. I think that plays in so much. I saw that with [Warriors coach] Steve Kerr. He will ride with Steph [Curry] if he's 0-for-15 or 15-for-15. It doesn't matter. Steve believes in him and his team so much that they can just play so free."
That's the blueprint, anyway. Fox just needs to keep following it.