Just Wait ’til Next Year: 1995 – The Kings End a Decade-Long Drought

(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 world population was over 5.6 billion people in 1995, none of whom had seen Kings playoff basketball in a decade. Garry St. Jean was entering his fourth season as head coach* and had already coached more games for the Kings than anyone in Sacramento history, and Geoff Petrie was entering his second year as General Manager. Could the Kings finally get over that playoff hump after that agonizing free fall down the stretch of last season?

Let’s Kings basketball!

*The Kings have had 21 head coaches in their 40 years in Sacramento. Only three of them have coached at least 200 games for the Kings. Name them. Bonus: Name the three that have coached the fewest.

The Kings began the off season in crushing fashion, as they lost Derrick Phelps to the Vancouver Grizzlies in the expansion draft. Flags were flown at half mast and children stayed home from school.

The Kings rebounded by drafting Corliss Williamson at 13 and Tyus Edney at 47. Without giving away too many spoilers, converting five picks over your first two years as GM into Brian Grant, Michael Smith, Lawrence Funderburke, Williamson and Edney – all players that would contribute in some fashion over the next decade – is a master class in small market team development.

Also, Corliss Williamson is the first Sacramento Kings rookie to express love and gratitude for Sacramento. The underpinnings on his statue are laid. F off, Billy Owens!

On the trade front, the Kings traded an aging Spud Webb (he would basically be out of the league a year later) for Ty Corbin. This made Bobby Hurley the de facto starting point guard, with Edney backing him up, especially after Randy Brown left for Chicago. The Kings acquired Sarunas Marciulionis for Frank Brickowski.

The Kings shot out of the gate, winning their first five games of the season. On Jan. 6 they defeated the Warriors to go ten games over .500 (19-9), and the team was 24-17 at the halfway point.

(Record scraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatch…)

The Kings would lose their next 11 in a row and 16 of 17. In the midst of this the Kings traded Walt Williams and Ty Corbin for Kevin Gamble and…Billy Owens??? Never coming to Sacramento Billy Owens? That Billy Owens? This is why we can’t have nice things.

The Kings bottomed out at 30-38 before winning 9 of their last 14 to finish 39-43. While the record was identical to the prior year, it was enough to SECURE A PLAYOFF SPOT FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1986!!! ARCO II WAS GOING TO ROCK, Y’ALL!

Before we get to the playoffs, a few in-season nuggets. I think that Mitch Richmond’s 1996-97 season was his best overall as a King, but this one may have been his most important. Richmond scored 23.1 points per game, including almost 44% from 3 (he made 225 of the team’s 462 threes), was again named to the All-Star team, and was named all-NBA 3rd team. Richmond played 81 games and 2,946 minutes. He was the ship that raised all other boats.

The Kings were 32-21 in games that Marciulionis played in, and 7-22 when he was out. When available, he was a little extra rest for Richmond, and Richmond and Rooney were bullies when they shared the court (add in Olden Polynice, Brian Grant, and Michael Smith, and the Kings were suddenly not all that fun to play against).

Tyus Edney took the starting reins at point guard about a quarter ways into the season. He was legit, and Hurley’s Herculean efforts to return to relevance were for naught.

Alright, let’s get on to the playoffs! The Kings had last hosted a playoff game on April 22, 1986, at ARCO I. A blink of an eye and 3,661 days later, the Kings would host their first playoff game at ARCO II.

The excitement and anticipation for this game was beyond fever pitch, and that may be an understatement. The Kings were facing the Seattle Supersonics, whose 64-18 regular season record was the best in the West and second only to the 72-10 Bulls. The George Karl coached Sonics were led by Defensive Player of the Year Gary Payton, and both Payton and Shawn Kemp were viable MVP candidates (if Michael Jordan was still playing baseball, that is). Detlef Schrempf and Hersey Hawkins (the ghost of Derek Smith past) completed their core four, and Frank Brickowski lurked on the bench, just waiting to exact his revenge for the trade that paroled him out of Sac.

The series was best of five, with the first pair of games and the “if” fifth game to be played in Seattle, with games three and “if” four at ARCO. The Kings upended the Sonics in game two of the series 90-81 and came home with homecourt advantage and visions of knocking off the #1 seed in the West.

I was at game three, and it was just the craziest sports event environment that I have ever experienced. Crazier than the Kings – Lakers games of future years (no spoilers!), crazier than the first games at ARCO I or ARCO II, crazier than the hockey playoffs that I had witnessed in Chicago. The crowd was in an absolute frenzy before the Kings even took the floor for warmups, and when they did hit the floor, the crowd went absolutely bonkers. And stayed bonkers for the entire time that the teams warmed up. This was really the first nationally televised game from Sacramento, and the crowd wanted to show out hard.

And they did.

And they didn’t stop.

By the end of the third quarter, the crowd was visibly exhausted, but the Kings were holding a 73-64 lead, and the crowd attempted to catch its collective breath in preparation for the fourth quarter. Unfortunately, the team was a little gassed as well, tightened up, was outscored by the Sonics 16-32 and went on to lose 89-96. Mitch Richmond played all 48 minutes for the second straight game. The Kings would have a day off before game four. Unfortunately, Richmond rolled his ankle 11 minutes into the game, and that was pretty much that.

Reynolds’ Wrap

“The 95-96 playoff team was without a doubt, in my mind the most physical, intimidating team in Sacramento Kings history. When Richmond, Marciulionis, Polynice, Grant and Williamson or Animal Smith were on the floor it was a thing to behold. The Bad Boy Pistons had nothing on these guys except more basketball talent. Also, as Rob described; game three at Old Arco was easily the most intense crown involvement I have ever witnessed. Duke fans are special but, on this night, they would have been a distant second. I’m actually getting my game face on reliving it. Us seniors need our memories!” – Jerry Reynolds

***

The level of civic pride over this team had never been higher, and there were a lot of folks that would have attended a parade for this team. Finally, after all these years, the Kings were becoming NBA relevant. There was positive momentum, and there was no looking back. Start clearing your May calendars, Kings fans, because more NBA playoff basketball is all but assured.

All we have to do is Wait ‘til Next Year.