Just Wait ’til Next Year: 1988 – Chaos, Collapses, and the Curse of Missed Potential

1988 – the year Jessica Rabbit made us feel really weird about ourselves. Steph Curry was born, and the Kings immediately passed on him due to ankle concerns. Dorthea Puente brought serial killing to Sacramento. And Jerry Reynolds was T’d up for passing out.

Let’s Kings basketball!

The 1988 offseason was a rather busy and extended one. The Kings traded face of the franchise Reggie Theus to Atlanta for the draft pick that would become Ricky Berry. The Kings also selected Vinny Del Negro in the second round. The Kings had managed to reshape their entire backcourt. Out were Theus, as well as (per prior deals) Mike Woodson and Larry Drew. The future was Kenny Smith, Berry, Del Negro, and what was left of Derek Smith’s knees.

Less than a month before the season was to begin, the Kings dealt their best player (Otis Thorpe) to Houston for Rodney McCray and Jim Petersen. I think that this deal may have been due to the Kings not wanting to pay Thorpe his next contract. It was somewhat known at the time that the Gregg Lukenbill had all but exhausted his coffers bringing the team to Sacramento, retrofitting ARCO I and building ARCO II. Many of our younger generation of Kings fans may be unaware that ARCO II came complete with a pad for a baseball diamond (you can still see it on Google Maps today, immediately North of where the arena once stood (type in RP Sports Complex). Not that McCray and Petersen weren’t NBA-level players. They just weren’t Otis Thorpe.

The Kings were 12-32 after their loss on Feb. 5, 1989. Within the next two weeks, they would waive Derek Smith and trade LaSalle Thompson, Randy Wittman, Joe Kleine and Ed Pinckney. The return on these two trades was Wayman Tisdale, Danny Ainge, and Brad Lohaus. The team went 12-17 once all of the new players arrived, and if you ever wondered how a town could get excited about a team playing at a .414 clip, well the answer is at least they were no longer playing at a .273 clip. And a hat tip to head coach Jerry Reynolds, who had to re-invent the team’s approach less than a month before the season and again during the season.

Jerry’s Scare

About that night: On December 27, 1988, the Kings battling it out at ARCO with the Portland Trailblazers. The Kings had lost four straight and dropped to 6-18. Incensed over a call made against the Kings by referee Blaine Reichelt, Reynolds screamed and leapt in the air from his seated position, then fell unconscious to the floor. Reichelt, thinking that Reynolds was putting on a show, promptly t’d him up. Reynold regained consciousness about 30 seconds later, though he remained on the floor with Kings medical staff for about 10 minutes before being taken to the hospital. Thankfully, Reynolds did not suffer any chest pain and his blood pressure was relatively normal, and he was ultimately given a clean bill of health. Oh yeah – Reichelt rescinded the technical foul, and the Kings went on to win 112-111, led by Kenny Smith’s 25 points and 12 assists, and a big 15-point, 16-rebound performance by the one and only Joe Kleine.

This is not one of Jerry’s favorite stories – even now, he is a “rub some dirt on it” kind of guy that refuses to be outworked. I think that it still pisses him off that he couldn’t travel to Utah and had to miss the next game.

Another Infamous Incident

A little more than two months later, on March 31, 1989, the Kings were leading the Philadelphia 76ers 94-91 when the roof of ARCO Arena sprung a leak. Led by owner Gregg Lukenbill, a gaggle of ARCO employees took to the catwalk high above the floor, spreading a “Sacramento Sports Association” banner below the leak, all while more than a few smart alecks chanted “Jump! Jump! Jump!” The Kings went on to lose 114-111. This is what we call “foreshadowing” as it pertained to how the rest of 1989 was going to play out.

Reynolds’ Wrap

“This season was the “ best of times and the worst of times.” The loss of Thorpe was a 10-year mistake but the young trio of Kenny Smith, Ricky Berry, and Vinny DelNegro provided hope. Developed a good relationship with now GM Bill Russell but Bill, RIP, had little scouting help which made a tough job tougher. In the middle of all this had my collapse on court which brought a lot of unwanted attention both locally and nationally. Of course, had a nice closing stretch to the season and got the number 1 pick in the draft. As I mentioned earlier, ‘the best of times the worst of times.’ Just couldn’t know the how bad the times would become!” – Jerry Reynolds

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The Kings had gone from 37 to 29 to 24 to 27 wins in their first four seasons, but the team finished on a bit of an (expectations adjusted) uptick. The roster had a gamer in Danny Ainge, a legit PG in Kenny Smith, a fulcrum in Rodney McCray, and a star in the making in Ricky Berry. And OMG, the Kings landed the 1^st pick in the NBA draft. The 1^st pick! Olajuwon in ’84. Ewing in ’85. David Robinson in ’87. What stud were we going to be blessed with (yep, feel free to scratch another record here, and make it a long one)? The collective fan base was brimming with anticipation, and we could hardly Wait ‘til Next Year.