Just Wait ’til Next Year: 1991 – The Arrival of Mitch Richmond

(Welcome back to our off-season series, “Just Wait ‘til Next Year!” in which special guest Jerry Reynolds and I bring you our 147 combined years to bring you our recollections of past Kings years.)

The Kings were about to embark on their seventh season in Sacramento, and after five straight years of missing the playoffs (as well as five straight years of sub-30 wins…basically an average of 25-26 wins a season). However, there was at least a bit of renewed hope based on the quartet of 1990 rookie draft picks, and it was about to get even more exciting, as the Kings had the #3, #27, #31 and #42 picks in the 1991 draft.

The new quartet wound up being Billy Owens (3), Pete Chilcutt (27), Randy Brown (31) and Steve Hood (42).

Shortly (no pun intended) after the draft, the Kings sent Travis Mays to Atlanta for Spud Webb and a future second round pick (it would become Lawrence Funderburke). Mays had already proven not to be much of a distributing point guard (his assist percentage was the lowest among the prior year’s rostered PGs), and with Jim Les and maybe Randy Brown being the only other PGs on the 1991 roster, bringing in a proven commodity like Webb made sense. And of course, the 5’7” Webb’s improbable and spectacular slam dunk championship in 1986 was well known among the fan base.

Webb would be fun.

The good vibes were fleeting, as Owens was quick to state that he did not want to play in Sacramento, to the point that he had still not signed a contract when the season began. On opening day, Owens was dealt to the Golden State Warriors for Mitch Richmond and a second round pick that would later become Tyus Edney.

Quick rant – I was never much of a Don Nelson fan. For as much of a genius as this guy was supposed to be, he traded Richmond away for Owens, which he said at the time was a “no-brainer” and years later tried to justify it as the team lacking length and that Owens was a longer player than Richmond, adding that he was sort of forced into making the trade. – End Rant.  Anyway, one man’s genius is another man’s good fortune, and Richmond joined the Kings after missing the first two games of the season.

Richmond quickly became the best player of the Sacramento era, and by a widening margin as each season went by. This was a baseline-to-baseline force of a player. The biggest difference between Mitch Richmond and Clyde Drexler was the difference between Hakeem Olajuwan and Duane Causwell. Richmond could have been the second best player for a number of championship contending teams, a pocket Pippen. Instead, he is on the Sacramento Kings Mt. Rushmore, no matter how you want to carve it out. Simply stated, he was a different level of basketball player than we had seen in Sacramento (wearing a Kings uni, anyway).

At the time of Richmond’s arrival, the Kings were still in the midst of their historic and ignominious (I put this word in for Jerry – he’ll understand why) road losing streak. It was not until their 13th game of the season (and 6th roadie) that the Kings snapped the losing streak at 43 games, defeating the Orlando Magic on November 23, 1991. Their last road win had come 368 days earlier versus the Washington Bullets on November 20, 1990. Want to have some “fun?” You can take an 82 game road stretch from the end of March 1989 to November 1991 in which the Kings were 6-76. This was must-flee TV. These were the Road Worriers. This was Seinfeld in basketball form: Different, hilarious, and about nothing. And Dick Motta was our own personal George Costanza. My recollection is that this is when/where “Welcome to Hell” originated, offered to Richmond by Webb upon Mitch’s arrival. But my memory may be conflating things.

Look, we’ve been through some coaches here. Luke Walton. Reggie Theus. George Karl. But for my money, Motta was my least favorite. Just a seemingly joyless man that would not even consider adapting the team’s approach to its (albeit limited) strengths. His .298 winning percentage ranks him 17th among Sacramento Kings coaches ahead of Bill Russell, but behind, you got it, Jerry Reynolds.

At 7-18, the Kings had seen enough and showed Motta the door. Rex Hughes took over, going 22-35 the rest of the way.

Among the successes of the season, Lionel Simmons was looking like a sturdy and productive player, averaging 17ppg and 8rpg from the small forward position in 2,895 total minutes (Richmond led the team at 3,095). He was not a deep threat, and he seemed to get his shot blocked more than a little bit, but he was a hard worker who promised to help the team for years to come.

Wayman and his Tizzie flip worked for the first three quarters of most games, after which the opposing team would remember that Wayman had no (and I mean zip, zero, nada), right hand, or even a right move. Wayman also had the biggest butt in the NBA this side of Rick Mahorn – not making a point here, just an observation.

Anthony Bonner became a fan favorite as bench energy, Michael “The Animal” Smith v1.0. His shot was, as they might say, a work-in-progress, but the heart was never questioned.

Pete Chilcutt would go on to marry a Kings dance team member (yes, this is the best that I can do after reviewing Chili’s numbers).

OK, this may be a 1995-96 story, but about Randy Brown… My buddy Mike (you may remember him from the ARCO I “Whoppers!” story), was in a fantasy basketball league, and the Kings Brian Grant was on his roster, with Wil Perdue being his only alternative behind him. Grant was out for a few games with a bum ankle, and it appeared as though it would carry him to the other side of the All-Star break. The week before the break, I caught wind via KHTK1140 that Grant was going to play the three games leading into the break. I gave this information to Mike (this was not readily broadcast national news back in ’96), and he inserted Grant into his lineup for Perdue. The difference was a +22 points for Mike, and it wound up moving him up to money slots by the end of the season. That summer, he was at a fundraiser for a children’s hospital, and Randy Brown, who was now a member of the Chicago Bulls, helped to donate a pair of autographed Brian Grant shoes. Mike put in the winning bid for them, sent them to me, and they sit right behind me on my credenza at work to this day. I wish all of you a friend/brother like Mike.

Reynolds’ Wrap

“A very difficult season. Looking for positives was a challenge but I found a couple. That would be the trades for Richmond and Webb. Rarely do trades turn into clear winners or losers. Most seem to fit team needs and both teams are satisfied to some level. Since these trades were my call it helped my mental state a bit. Mitch acquired for Billy Owens and Spud for Travis Mays. Mitch became a many time All Star and Billy a solid journeyman. Spud had several highly productive and exciting seasons while Travis was out of the league in two seasons. Equally important to our ownership group was the saving of about five hundred thousand dollars in salary. That was significant at the time since team was losing money and the process of seeking to sell the team had begun. It also explained why the team operated as close to minimum cap as possible. Tough to win in the NBA with those constraints. Arco 2 was a loud, fun building with amazing fans regardless!” – Jerry Reynolds

***

Another sub-30 win season, but the Kings would now have an entire summer to really integrate all of the new acquisitions of the past two years, perhaps under the guidance of a new coach. And considering that the road record was eight times better than the year before (including four of the last seven.) As the late, great Hannibal Lecter once said, “All good things to those who wait,” adding, “Just Wait ‘til Next Year!”