Kings' De'Aaron Fox wins first-ever Jerry West Clutch Player of the Year Award

There was nobody in the NBA more clutch than Sacramento Kings guard De'Aaron Fox this season. As such, he's been awarded an all-new award meant to honor those in the NBA who seem to show up most when the lights get bright.

Fox is the inaugural Jerry West Clutch Player of the Year Award winner, and true to his clutch nature, he won the award going away in style.

Per ESPN, the sixth-year guard got 91 out of a possible 100 first-place votes for the award and 460 out of 500 total pints. He beat out Miami Heat guard and well-known clutch player Jimmy Butler and Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan for the inaugural honor. 

How does he do it? How does he stay so clutch despite the ups and downs of an 82-game season?

"You can't be afraid to fail," Fox said on the TNT broadcast. "Obviously, you're not going to make every shot, but my teammates, my coaches, they put me in position to succeed. So the least I can do is have confidence in myself to take good shots."

That sounds awfully similar to well-known clutch player Wayne Gretzky (and, or, Michael Scott), who said that you miss 100% of the shots that you don't take. 

Fox led the NBA, scoring 194 clutch points, according to statistics. He's also played a major role in the Kings going up 2-0 on the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference first-round playoffs. He scored 38 points in game one and 24 in game two.

He's been averaging 25 points a game this season.

Clearly, being clutch is a mindset.