Second key point: The site will continue on without me.
With the key points out of the way, let me expand. I was promoted to the front page of Sactown Royalty just over 16 years ago, and have been covering the Sacramento Kings in varying capacities ever since. A special shout out to Tom Ziller for giving me that first opportunity. This team, this site, and this community have been a big part of my life, and walking away is not a decision I’ve come to lightly. It also is not a decision I’ve reached abruptly. I knew for the entire last season that it was likely going to be my last, and my feelings did not waver. I’m burnt out. I don’t have the joy and the passion to keep plugging away, and it’s time for me to be a more casual fan of the Kings and to spend more time with my family. I have three boys, and my fiancée has two boys of her own. I’m going to spend more time with the six of them, and less time watching my phone to see what the Kings have done now.
I’m incredibly proud of this site and this community, and thankful for the amazing opportunities I’ve had because of it. Building The Kings Herald after we were let go from SB Nation was a thrill, and I love watching this site continue to grow and evolve. I’m excited for what comes next for this site, as it will be still be helmed by tremendous writers that I am lucky enough to call my friends.
I’ll still be a Kings fan. I’m still worried about the direction of this team. I don’t think it will ever have a chance at sustained success with Vivek in charge, which makes me sad. I will remain a stout believer in Keegan Murray and Keon Ellis. I’ll continue to be mad that De’Aaron Fox is gone, mad at the assets we didn’t get back in that trade, and mad that a now-departed front office was allowed to complete that trade. I’ll continue to root for Devin Carter to prove me wrong about him. I’ll hope that Vivek and Scott Perry can make me look like an idiot, because I’ve always wanted the Kings to be good more than I’ve wanted myself to be right. All of that will remain the same, and I’ll still be around online, just less than before and not in an official capacity for the site.
I’ve been thinking back on all the cool things I’ve gotten to do in my writing career, and it’s really amazing. I interviewed Vivek when he first became Kings owner, on a live broadcast that he did not realize was live. I interviewed a young Ben McLemore who seemed even more nervous than I was. I got to chat with Vlade Divac off the record. Monte McNair called me out in a press conference I was attending via Zoom, and I later got to meet him in person (Side note: both Vlade and Monte were incredibly nice and incredibly gracious to me and this site even when I had been very, very harsh in my criticisms of them). I got to stand on the court after a game at Arco, which doesn’t seem like much but seemed like such an impossibility when I watched my first games in Arco as a kid. I got credentialed to attend a Kings training camp, and then had that credential revoked because of the Maloofs’ pettiness. Whenever I visit Sacramento and manage to get to a Kings game I’ve been able to meet up with fans and other media members who felt like longtime friends even as we met in person for the first time. I even got to enjoy a stint writing about the Kings for the Sacramento Bee. All of it has been surreal for a guy who was just making jokes and firing off shitty opinions on the internet.
Thanks for everything,
Greg
Will miss your wry wit and engaging writing style. Thanks for your hard work and dedication. Enjoy your family!
Greg ruined my Monday!
You will be missed. Good luck in all you do and don’t be a stranger.
Thank you all the way from the uk. You have helped watching Basketball Hell from afar much more palatable – enjoy your family
Thank you Greg! Enjoy the time with family!
Vivek ruined my Greg!
Also, it is now OK to boo.
Also, Greg took the higher road here. I would have simply re-purposed all of my old articles over the past decade – changing PDA to Vlade to Monte to Scott, or Keith to George to Dave to Luke to Mike to Doug to…and so on. Tweak a date here and score there and presto!: You can mail it in every day, just like the Kings organization.
–
Greg, I don’t know how you did it for all these years. I wrote about this team for about five years and beyond that I could just not fashion the time, energy and passion to continue as a daily (and eventually, monthly or even annually) contributor. Your writing was prodigious in both quantity and (especially) quality, and you did all of this while also managing the site. You (and of course, Akis) are to be commended for taking what was once a very small Sactown Royalty membership and blossoming it into a large community supported by the best writing staff on the webs.
And you did all of this without a trace of ego or agenda. Your evenness, fairness and reason was always a calming influence in a community where the lone topic is a hilariously, infuriatingly, remarkable shitshow of a professional sports organization.
The community will go on, and I know that the amazing TKH staff will all pitch in to help fill the giant hole that you are leaving. But now matter how hard everyone tries, it will always be just that much less fun around here without your steady hand, incredible wit, and keen basketball insight. Please let me know when they schedule to hang your jersey at the TKH corporate office, and I will be there.
Bless you and your family, my friend.
I’ve shared this before, but I think it’s worth sharing again.
Rob, you’re the reason I found Sactown Royalty and you inspired me to write about the Kings. Way back in the day when TrueHoop had a link roundup of things to read, the linked a post of yours. It was so funny and off the wall, it was a moment of “oh, this a place that lets you write about the Kings in a fun way”. It helped me reconnect with the team and with my hometown, and I knew I’d found a corner of the internet with my own kind of weirdos.
So, none of this would have happened without you. And I mean that as a compliment.
This is how I would have handled writing about the Kings.
Instead, you are sailing into the sunset.
Thank you Greg for all of the whimsical woe that this site provides to magnify the joy and lessen the lows of being a Sacramento
KangzKings fan. I hope you can find the time, some of the time, to return and share your thoughts and insights.So for you, are they going to hang your pants up, Rob?
My pants are already in the rafters.
Kfan ruined my intended “Greg ruined my …”-comment, so I will be serious for once.
Greg, thank you for everything. You have helped being a Kings fan a lot more bearable for me.
I hope to see you around occasionally as a commenter, but more than that, I wish you and your family good luck and hapiness.
Please don’t Boo me
Such a bummer Greg. Happy for you but feels like Kings world is all collapsing.
I hope you will still be on here commenting. This community is the one good thing about the Kangz and you are one of the pillars.
Enjoy freedom from hoops hell.
Just for you Greg, I will NOT boo you today.
Just kidding. But I hope we will still go strong with the Greg-related memes. 😉
Thanks for the writing and time you’ve put into covering this team for the past 16 years (I only joined STR in 2013, so I didn’t get to experience what was before then). It’s been an absolute pleasure to read and discuss the “Basketball Hell” team. Even when the team is misery, the staff here never is, including you!
Shout out to Ben McLemore getting a mention in Wissinger’s sayonara.
Thanks for everything Greg! Family > Kangz. Always.
Hopefully we’ll still see ya lurking in the comments section still.
Good luck and godspeed, Greg. If only the Kings were as sharp and intelligent in their actions as you’ve been in your writing, we’d get to hang banners instead of our heads at the end of each season.
I sincerely thank you for all the time, effort and passion you have brought to this community over the years. I’ve highly enjoyed our conversations here, your wit, and basketball intelligence. We are losing a great one today that will be incredibly hard to replace. This is worse return than that Isaiah Thomas trade. We don’t even get Cash Considerations back in this deal. How about some Ziller Bucks? I’m sure you have you some of those stored away in your floor safe.
Best of luck to you, Greg, in your growing family and life in Colorado. I’m proud of you for know when to step back from the Kangz, but I‘m also sure you’ll pop in from time to time as we are your other, more dysfunctional, family. See ya around, amigo.
I’ve not thought about ZillerBucks in a long time and they were one of my finest creations. I was a fool not to digitize them ten years ago.
Hell yes! we can finally boo freely! A new era of Kings basketball is upon us!
kidding aside – you’ll be greatly missed on here. Thanks for all your time and effort covering this team. It hasn’t been easy and you’ve tried your best to keep us entertained along this shit storm.
Greg: Ziller, are they booing me?
Ziller: No, they are saying Boo-reg! Boo-reg!
Reminds me of when certain media members were trying to convince social media that the fans were saying ‘lukkkkkeeeeeeeee’ ????????
Legendary run. Simply put, this place wouldn’t exist without you. Thanks for everything, Greg!
Your efforts helped build the greatest fan site on the planet, and we’re all incredibly grateful for everything you’ve done. Thank you for calling me out when I was being a jerk—and for giving me another chance. Your contributions will be deeply missed, but I hope you’ll still chime in when the next asset inevitably gets mismanaged, which will probably be by the end of the day.
Congratulations on making a tough decision. Enjoy the time with your family. You are a workhorse and have been a constant source of laughter, and we will have enough jokes and shitty opinions here to carry on.
All the best in your next chapter.
Thank you. Greg. Good move–the burn out isn’t worth it.
You’ve made being a Kings fan alot better than the actual product.
You have earned it. Great job for so long.
You’ll be missed, Greg. Thank you for all of the work you’ve put into KH/STR, which has literally been my go-to source of Kings news for over a decade now. Enjoy less time with this ridiculous team and more with your family; you’ve definitely earned it.
Your work here has been tremendous as others have described.
Enjoy your time with your family. You are definitely making the right decision, you only get one chance with your kids, I prioritized my son over my work and now that he’s 18, I’m so glad I did.
I will miss you but smile when I think of you traveling down the joyful, yet turbulent, path of raising your kids.
Caption: “I traded Greg Wissinger for Grant Cohn and I AM A GENIUS.”
An opinion I found myself more often than not agreeing with. Thanks for the great content and even better wit & banter that accompanied it all. Look forward to hopefully still seeing you in the comment sections every so often.
This season-long sense of turmoil
Caused all seeds of hope to spoil.
Sad news for Kings fandom
Greg will now abandon
This basketball hell where he toiled!
+1 Thank you, Greg, for all the hard work you put into this site!
I’ve run theatre programs in several places, and the two things I want when I leave are (1) To have the program be more sustainable and better than when I came to it and (2) to be missed for doing the first thing, but without concern that it can’t go on without me.
This is what you Greg (and Akis and Tom) have done. Bar raised, continuity believable, but definitely missed. But I’m glad you’re not letting TKH ruin your (impending) marriage.
I truly wouldn’t be able to tolerate the Kings much without this. I spent more time on TKH than on watching the actual team. You care so much more about winning and fan experience than the actual organization does. My hope is that when Scott Perry steps down, you step in.
Beams lit.
+1 as a member of the theatre criticism press, I sincerely appreciate the fact that Vlade and Monte are kind even when you’re harsh. We both have jobs to do, and I love your stories above. Deeply curious about what was learned off the record.
I’ve heard many, many things off the record over the years. Some of it has become public with time, some of it I hope becomes public someday. I heard a lot of things over the years but I never worked to becomes a “sources” guy. I never shared anything unless it was said publicly or reported by someone else.
Monte and I talked during the Beam Team season, I was out for a game right after the trade deadline. He didn’t go into a ton of behind the scenes stuff, as we were just standing in the concourse of G1C. I gave him credit for hiring Brown when all of us really wanted a young, new coach. He talked about how they had success in Houston with experienced coaches. Nothing crazy or secretive, just an interesting insight into his thought process.
For Vlade, he would hold these off-record media sessions with lots of local media to ask questions, similar to what Nico Harrison recently did in Dallas. He would be very candid with us. You could get a sense of which moves he still believed in, and which players he was frustrated with. It was very interesting. He’s gone on record with this in the years since so I don’t mind sharing, but he was very clear that picking Bagley over Luka was purely about who he thought would be better and the better fit. That was hard to hear lol.
He’s gone on record with this in the years since so I don’t mind sharing, but he was very clear that picking Bagley over Luka was purely about who he thought would be better and the better fit. That was hard to hear lol.
I know BWill had a lot of influence at the time, so was hoping it was more of a situation where Vlade was just getting pushed out. But that is painful to hear. Especially because he was part of a Kings team that was ahead of its time and would have fit well in the modern NBA (ditto for the Mavs teams we competed against every season). Doncic, even with a worse outcome than what he’s become, would be a perfect fit for that team and the modern NBA. Whereas, Bagley, I think by now it’s all been said, but just a painful choice.
As an aside, Vlade knew Doncic’s dad and has sat with him courtside since. I can only image being Luka on draft night and the top two teams include a Suns team with your former coach and a Kings team with your Dad’s buddy who know FIBA very well. You’d have to imagine one of them is getting ready to pick you and they both pass. That would sting a little
Hey now, MBIII was just a team’s leading scorer in a playoff game! He shot 100% from the field and from 3, had 5 rebounds, 3 stocks, and even outscored MVP front-runner SGA!
He helped make the game close.
And despite Vlades idiocy, he’s back. Vivek wanting more great advice.
Greg, I am both terrible saddened about this, but also extremely excited you have other things you are focusing on in life that are even bigger and better opportunities for you.
As someone who started reading SacTown Royalty around 2008 and first posted in 2009, I have been reading your thoughts, analysis, and personal stories here for nearly the entire 16 years.
For me, I had gone through a horrific breakup right before the 2009 draft and as a die hard Kings fan during a recession, I was looking for ways to interact more. I found this site and my first post was the day of the 2009 draft predicting that Rubio would indeed fall to us (the big debate of the time!). The community and joy there and now here is something that has become an integral part of my life, even as my day-to-day participation has waxed and waned based on life and the amount of actual Kings news there is versus me just repeating the same point over and over again in different ways.
Life as a Kings fan isn’t easy. And whether it’s the performance on the court, ownership / GM changes, or the improbable Here We Stay campaign that kept the Kings in Sacramento, you’ve created such a friendly and welcoming place for fans to share thoughts that are often deeper and more insightful that what other more professional sources are providing. This is a testament to you and the rest of the team. Even more so as you started this site, when SBNation eviscerated our old community.
I hope that someday I will get to meet you in person and buy you a beer or coffee as a thank you for all of your contributions to the community. Hopefully at a Kings playoff or NBA Finals game.
In the meantime, thank you for everything that you have done. And while I am sure we and really hope we still see you post and participate in the community, I want to thank you for your insight, leadership, and values that you brought here and to the greater Sacramento community. These will all be missed, although, I am sure you have built a deep enough bench of new leaders that everything will continue on strong.
Best of luck in your next chapter. And see you on the boards or in the bleachers.
Farewell GWiss, all the best!
.
This site doesn’t exist without you, Greg. Appreciate everything you have put into your content and all you have done to provide this community with thoughtful leadership. Thank you!
+1 on this.
Ziller brought me over with his writing and you kept me here over the years. Loved your local knowledge of the curse that anyone who was born in sac and is a fan of hoops has. Kangz fandom regardless of our bitching.
Also not shocking that Vlade and MM would recognize that despite criticism you’re a great person and I enjoyed talking to you once at the old building. Have fun with the fam and you will be missed.
Thanks for everything, bud!
Jordi, Mike Brown, Luke, Wes, Monte, Fox, Kev, and now Greg, leaving. 2024-25 Kings season sucks majorly. But 3 things remain a positive constant: Kings basketball, STR/TKH, and Kings fans. One constant negative: the dismissive little chap.
Thank you for bringing joy to Kings fans worldwide through TKH and the mothership, Greg.
Hope to see you in the comments section GW.
Enjoy the extra free time.
Will definitely miss your writing! Enjoy your family and free time, Greg.
Although, you seem to ruin a ton of things so I’m not sure why everyone is so sad?
I kid I kid
Thank you Greg. Take care King.
Greg, While this is sad news for all of us yokels in the KH universe, it is completely understandable. Family is more important always. Happy for your new chapter. I felt bad for you and the other writers who had to do recaps after losses. That would have dragged on me. 16 years is impressive. Hope to see you back here with us in the peanut gallery from time to time. Five boys you say? Any of them a PG, PF or 3 and D wing? Heck even a back up C would be nice. Cheers to your new adventures.
Next time I’m at the G1C there had better be a “greg” banner adorning the rafters. This project broadly, and you specifically, have done so much for this fan base.
By far my least favorite person on this site but i can appreciate your hard work from sactown royalty to here.
Thanks for the work.
Is this because I booed?
Seriously though, thanks for everything Greg. I’ve been commenting around STR and not the Herald for almost 15 years and it’ll be weird not seeing your articles and having spirited debates with you in the comments section. Really appreciate all that you’ve done for this place and you’ll be missed.
Thanks for everything Greg. You will definitely be missed.
Appreciate all of the hard work and commitment. The only way to really follow a team like the Kings is from a slight distance and with very low expectations. Following too closely can’t be easy for any normal person. Kudos to the people who are able to punch that clock every day!
So is this like Jordi leaving the Kings, Wes leaving the Kings or Monte leaving the Kings?
We need an Amick article!!!
BREAKING
Greg named new Kings head coach!
in my limited interactions here and in the old place, you’ve been a true gentleman. Thanks for your incredible patience in reporting the Kings latest debacle. Thanks for using my music on the STR podcast. Thanks for making fun of my use of the British (and correct) way to spell centre.
glad you’re sticking around. See you in the comments.
Thank you for your work here and at the old site!
I have enjoyed our interactions over the years.
Have fun, be well, and do good things!
First of all, that’s a lot of boys. It’s enough for a basketball team, although it would be plagued by turnovers caused by stop touching me and no you’re the farthead.
It’s been great reading you, arguing with you, agreeing with you, and learning from you. I’m a loyal fan, but not the kind that understands the salary cap or can go deep into the Xes and Os, and I’ve picked up a thing or two from reading your work and that of the other writers. Hell, I played basketball and still never picked up some of that. Too busy improvising, I guess.
Enjoy the extra time you’ll have, but jump into the comments once in a while and don’t be a stranger.
Thank you for the many thousands of hours of great writing and even better humor, often done when some of the rest of us (me) were checked out, gave up or could only muster a smartass comment.
Best to your and your family, and hope to see you around the site. Fuck it, you deserve this break.
Good time to bail, future looking bleak to me. I applaud anyone that follows this team, it’s more of a curse than a gift. Writing about them all the time sounds brutal.
Great work though and good luck with everything. I doubt I’ll be around much next year either, it won’t be worth it. Vivek hasn’t killed my love for the team but two decades of losing has definitely made me realize I need a break.
Thank you Greg for your writing and for keeping this site a great place for Kings fans, no matter how the team was doing. Looking forward to reading your future posts. Enjoy the well deserved free time.
OT: Kings won the tiebreaker vs ATL, and are 13th in drawings. So does this convey to ATL then?
Sorry to ruin your retirement, Greg.
Unless the ping pong balls jump the Kings into the top 4, the pick is gone. 3.8% chance of that happening.
So you’re saying there’s a chance?
Five boys! You and your fiancé are doing God’s work. You are my hero!
As I was reading your column I was thinking back to the ways I would get news about the Kings through pre-season magazines and the “Transaction” small print section on the last page of the Sports section in all hardprint newspapers pre the Internet of Everything.
Thank you for saving me from that purgatory of no information fan-dome with class, style and knowledge.
Godspeed Greg, to you, your fiancé and your lucky boys.
Playoff basketball is something.
Are moving screens legal, or only in MSG (and only for Knicks)?
and in other news…
https://x.com/james_hamnba/status/1914428862991360229?s=46&t=LRRFdoSPcReEZERgnElWRA
he Sacramento Kings won the coin flip with the Atlanta Hawks and go into the lottery with the 13th best odds of moving into the top 4. If they stay at 13 or drop to 14 in the lottery, the pick goes to the Hawks to complete the original Kevin Huerter trade
The scene: some corporate office of a certain team that sucks at drafts and trades.
Interviewer, peering over top of resume he/she has been skimming, and asks: “Your name is Exhib…Xzbit..Xhib…”
Interviewee: “Just call me G…and I’m here to turn this s@#$ around…”
It’s my dream to sign a lucrative, multi-year contract with the Kings and then get fired by Vivek and get paid to do nothing.
Good luck. I’ve enjoyed your perspectives on both platforms. Hope you enjoy your next chapter as much as we have all enjoyed this one.
From a guy who disagreed with…oh probably about 90% of your basketball opinions back in the day, let me say – you may have been right about a couple of those things. 🙂
Congrats on all you’ve done here, Greg. Your tenure has been passionate and prolific – just an incredibly impressive run. Cheers.
I was right about a couple of things, wrong about plenty! I always appreciated our disagreements.
You’ll always be “Exhibit G” to me.
Props to the new site, Bravo on the hostile takeover of STR, and thanks for all the good work. You are a special kind of masochist.
Thank you for the years of excellent content Greg…its people like you that keep us around no matter how matter much Kangz is going on. Your writing will be sorely missed, hope to you see pipe up in the comments.
Thanks Greg! You helped waste so much of my time these many, many years from StR to here. Go build your family!
Thanks for your hard work and dedication, even (albeit often) when the beam didn’t burneth very bright. Enjoy your the spoils of your TKH/STR pension and retirement, and don’t spend all your Zillerbucks in one place!
Zillerbucks are tariff-proof, so I’m all set!
Thank you for all the kind words. It really meant a lot to me. This community has truly been what kept me going for as long as I did. Being a Kings fan often sucks, but being friends with a bunch of other great Kings fans is awesome.
I’m sure you can hear the music in your head.
Thank you Greg. I pretty much never comment on here but this is the exception. You’ve done so much for the community and this site and writers are the only reason I continue putting myself through all the misery. You will be greatly missed!
Thank you for all the time and effort you have put into this site. You have and always will be very appreciated. I hope you are able to continue in the comment section. Spent good time with the kids. It’s crazy how fast they grow and time flies. GO KINGS!!!
Greg, I will come out of hiding to wish you well and say thanks for everything.
I’ve been lurking in these halls since way before G1C was anything more than a half empty shopping mall. Back when it was known by another royal name, when Section 214 had pants, when all we needed was a small forward, when connect 4 was the new chess, and probably way before that. I like many of you have been a fan for a long long time. Like… a Spud Webb, Wayman Tisdale, Duane Causwell, Mitch Richmond long time. (fun fact: I used to serve those dudes at TGI Fridays back in the day when I was fresh out of the Navy.)
I don’t remember when I discovered the old SR site, but it was sometime during the Maloof era and you have been a very important part of what made this place what it is, what it was, and probably what it will be.
Being a Kings fan is rough. It’s not a game for the weak at heart, and I checked out a long time ago, as my strength and will are far inferior to yours and the rest of the true fans here. Vivek, Petey D, and Vlade (my second favorite Kings PLAYER by the way) broke my spirit and I’ve watched from a much more casual perch for for the last however many years. I still read though, even if I stopped posting. There are still some great dudes who will keep this thing alive, but you will be missed here even by those of us who left it well before you did.
I’ve never met you, but please accept my well wishes as a friend. Go hang with those boys. Whatever they are doing in life is more important (and probably more exciting) than whatever is happening on this merry-go-round.
I liked your stuff and looked forward to reading. Thanks for always being there, cheers and joy, Greg.
I don’t check in for a few days figuring that there’s not much that could be going and and read about this bomb – ay carumba! The only reason I follow this ‘team’ after having moved away from Sac in 1988 is because of the TKH and how it keeps the Kings diaspora together (mostly in shared misery but occasionally in joy). Thank you for all your dedication over the years and hope to see you active on the messageboards.
Long time STR and TKH lurker, rare commenter. Thank you for what you have done. The world needs people with your passion to give us these incredible spaces to have community. Best of luck
I’m very late to this, but thank you and enjoy your next chapter!
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