Female members of the media covering the Sacramento Kings were overheard on a live television feed Monday discussing Ben Simmons and Zach LaVine in personal terms, a conversation that spread widely after a fan account clipped it from Kings media day.
The remarks were captured while a KCRA 3 livestream showed only the team’s media-day backdrop — Sutter Health and Kings logos, a “LIVE” bug and a lower-third reading “Sacramento Kings Media Day.” No speakers appeared on camera. The station later ended and deleted the stream and started another, according to the account that first circulated the clip.
The conversation, pieced together from the circulating audio and multiple transcriptions posted Monday, mixed appearance talk with unflattering judgments of the two players.
On Simmons, who agreed this month to a one-year, $3.5 million deal with Sacramento after sitting out the 2025-26 season, one voice said he was “cringe” but “lucky he’s so fine,” adding that he was “a good looking dude” and that “his skin’s so smooth.”
Some of the media members not realizing they’re on a hot mic. Calling Ben Simmons cringe but “hella fine”, one also says LaVine is “hella fine” before one interjects saying his personality is annoying and a prick. pic.twitter.com/FIsoqgnUYC
— Austin (@kings_muse) September 28, 2026
The group then turned to LaVine, the veteran guard who opted into a $49 million player option for 2026-27. One speaker called him “hella fine” and “cute.” Another cut in that his personality “f—ing annoys me” and that he “seems like a prick,” with at least one person saying they would take “Ben over Zach.” A separate remark on the tape compared tastes to former Warrior and Wizards guard Jordan Poole and included a comment about preferring “light skins.”
None of the voices has been publicly identified by an employer. Posts describing the audio referred to “four reporters,” “Kings media” and “female Kings reporters.” That description matches the sound of the tape; it does not establish which outlets employ the speakers or whether they work for KCRA.
A follow-up from the same account said KCRA stopped and deleted the livestream before launching a replacement. In replies, viewers said the same voices were later heard complaining they had been “illegally recorded.” One reply put it bluntly: “You’re at media day, there are cameras and microphones everywhere.”
What would happen if a group of male reporters were caught on a live local-TV feed rating a woman’s body, comparing “types,” talking about her skin and declaring which female athlete they would take over another. In that version, the story would not be “media-day blooper.” It would be a personnel story before the sun went down.
That is the double standard that matters here. Not a vague claim that women get criticized more on the internet. A specific claim about how newsrooms, stations and leagues have actually punished the same class of remark when the target is a woman.
