Sacramento Kings:
With new blood in the West they might not be Western Royalty

The Sacramento Kings franchise has bounced around the country ever since joining the National Basketball Association as the Rochester Royals in 1950. The team then moved to Cincinnati in 1958 and left for Kansas City where they became the KC-Omaha Kings. The name would be changed a few years later to just the Kansas City Kings. They didn’t leave Kansas City until 1985 where they moved to their present home of Sacramento. The team reached the playoffs the very first year they were in Sacramento. They were led by guys like Reggie Theus and Eddie Johnson on their playoff run and eventually lost in the first round to the NBA Finals bound Houston Rockets. The team went into an incredible slump not making the playoffs again until 1996 when the team slipped in as the number eight seed.

More recently, the Kings have made the playoffs for the past six seasons. Some Kings fans might argue that it was actually better to be a Kings fan when they were losing and not even making the playoffs. This recent playoff run has tortured Kings fans and players alike. In the past six playoff appearances the Kings have lost in the last game of the series in five of those seasons and two of them at the hands of divisional foes the Los Angeles Lakers. The 2002 Kings-Lakers series became one of the legends of the NBA. The Kings went up on the Lakers 2-1 and then went up by 24 in game four. The Lakers clawed their way back from the, what looked like, insurmountable lead and got one final chance down by two points. Kobe Bryant drove and missed a jumper Shaq then missed a put back and Vlade Divac knocked the ball out of harms way or so he thought. The ball rolled right into Robert Horry’s hands outside of the three point line and Horry, one of the more clutch players in NBA history, proceeded to knock down the three and change the face of the series. The Kings would win game five but lost games six and seven, even with the deciding game in Sacramento. That series is one of the series that will live on forever in NBA history.
Last season was another heartbreaker for the Kings. They didn’t lose to the Lakers, but it still hurt a great deal. The Kings finished the season with a 55-27 record and faced off against the Dallas Mavericks in the first round. The Kings walked all over the Mavericks and won the series 4-1. In the second round the Kings went up opposite to the Minnesota Timberwolves who had achieved the number one seed in the West with a 58-24 record. The series was back and fourth the whole time and came down to the last shot in game seven. Chris Webber threw a pump fake to Kevin Garnett, down by three with less than five seconds to go, and then let his three pointer go. The shot was halfway down and popped out giving the Kings their third straight game seven loss in to end their season.

The Kings off-season has been one that most teams wouldn’t want to deal with. After the last game of the Timberwolves series Webber made some comments that were seemingly directed in the direction of Peja Stojakovic questioning his mental toughness in big games. It was during the Olympics that Stojakovic let it be known that he would like to be moved from the Kings. Many feel that another reason for Stojakovic wanting to move is that the team let go of his countryman Vlade Divac. Divac didn’t get a new contract from the Kings in the off-season and defected to the Los Angeles Lakers where he will try and fill the void, or rather the crater, which was left by the departure of Shaquille O’Neal. The team also lost a number of key players that would come off of their bench. They lost Tony Massenburg to the Spurs, Rodney Buford to the Nets, and Anthony Peeler to the Wizards. They did bring in Greg Ostertag to fill in for Divac as the back up center.

In the draft the Kings needed to beef up their guard corps. So they decided to go skinny by drafting Western Carolina shooting guard Kevin Martin who is 6’7” but only weighs 187 pounds. Many people compare him to what Doug Christie looked like when he was drafted out of Pepperdine 12 years ago. The Kings got another guard with their second round pick when they drafted Ricky Minard out of Morehead State.

The Kings starting five is one of the more formidable starting lineups in the entire league. The team has an incredible chemistry on the court and always makes it look like they’re having fun on the court with their constant ball movement with highlight passing and shooting. At point guard is Mike Bibby, at shooting guard is Doug Christie, at small forward is Peja Stojakovic, at power forward is Chris Webber, and at center is Mike Miller.

During their playoff runs the Kings have been known as a team that displays an incredible amount of depth and raw athletic talent. This year the Kings will have that but just not as much as they usually have. The bench will feature point guard Bobby Jackson, who could be the starting point guard for a majority of the NBA teams, forward Darius Songaila and newly acquired center Greg Ostertag. If the Kings can stay healthy there aren’t very many reasons that they shouldn’t find themselves in the NBA Finals this year.

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