Editors note: The following was written prior to today's events in Washington DC. We delayed running it for several hours, but I've decided to run it now. As of this moment there is still a game happening tonight, and I don't fault anyone turning to sports for escape from the moment. Please also use this post for tonight's game thread. -Greg
***
Well it's Wednesday and the Kings have gone at least 12 hours since embarrassing themselves off the court... which, of course, means that they're due for a game where they can embarrass themselves on it! Tonight they'll take on the Chicago Bulls, who started their season off 0-3, heard Charles Barkley call them the least talented team in the league and then promptly won four of their next five games. They're coming off of a 20 point comeback against the Blazers just last night, which would be great news for a team that liked to get out and run. Unfortunately, this is the Kings. Let's talk Kings basketball!
When: Wednesday, January 6th, 7:00 PM PST
Where: Golden 1 Center, Sacramento, CA
TV: NBCSCA - Mark Jones on the call.
Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
Chicago-ing Up: Okay, first things first: The Chicago Bulls have gone through quite the rearrangement of deckchairs and as such, must be respected. Gone are days of GarPax and their particular flavor of stench. Gar Forman and his 22 years of serving the Bulls were pushed gently off the capsized boat after the effective end of the Bulls season in late spring of 2020. So too is John Paxson, who spent 17 years with the franchise before essentially firing himself (though technically he's been reassigned) so that they might bring in Arturas Karnisovas as the new Executive Vice President of Basketball Operations who then himself named Marc Eversley as the new General Manager of the Chicago Bulls. Karnisovas has been a long sought after talent in the managing world in the NBA with stops in Houston, working with current Kings GM Monte McNair, as well as in Denver, where he worked his way up to the General Manager's position before departing for the Windy City. I'm not going to go into much further detail than this, but the Bulls are being ran by intelligent, more than competent people. So if you're counting that's one less franchise the Kings can depend on to routinely screw things up.
Gone too in all this is the anthropomorphized cinnamon jelly bean known as Jim Boylan.....
Okay so, I truly wanted to write more about this match-up tonight against the Kings and Bulls. Lots of banter about their pacing and Lavine nearly being in Sacramento etc. But there's something far more pressing taking place in our country and well, that's taking precedent while I write this.
Prediction
The arc of the moral universe is long, but bends toward justice.
Kings: 0, The People: 340 million or so.
I just want to say how much I appreciate you, Will, and the entire crew of this site. Thank you.
Absolutely appreciate the hell out of all of you too. I don’t have the intestinal fortitude to ignore what’s happening around us and this isn’t something we should look away from.
I’ll be working till about midnight tonight to finish the stuff I should have finished during the day that I couldn’t pay attention to because watching today’s craziness unfold in real time was too compelling.
Kind of funny this got two downvotes.
Vox folks monitoring the competition?
Or it’s Grant and Vivek.
No idea. All the comment said was hey, thank guys for running this site, and he gets a couple tomatoes thrown at him. Funny.
There’s someone who downvotes a lot of comments at random it seems like. Not sure there is any point to it.
Will, I am breaking my 5+ year streak of posting game preview limericks in reaction to the seditious seizure of our nation’s Capitol building earlier today. Though I had one prepared this morning, I am too sad and angry to post it. To those of you who may be offended by my introducing “politics” into a sports blog, I can only say “Deal with it!”
It is actually very unnerving. And appreciate your part of the THK experience. Stay safe and I hope this can be rectified soon.
You know my love for all you do, Jman and I’m sorry the world is what it is. Obviously we try to keep things focused on the Kings but this (IMO) absolutely transcends that.
If individuals don’t like that we’ve paused regular coverage for something like this: I say fuck’em and for anyone insensitive to the moment wanting to jump in here… I don’t want you reading my shit or patronizing my site and if I lost every goddamn dime and was run out of sports forever in exchange for you never coming back here… Well it’s a trade worth making.
Well said.
Appreciate you, Jman.
I’d like to help:
There was an old man from Queens
Who had a predilection for teens
He lost an election
Fomented insurrection
And still can’t distribute vaccines.
Moderators – feel free to dump this, it’s out of bounds.
Compared to a Confederate flag flying in the Senate during an attempted coup, this definitely isn’t out of bounds. Have a rec.
Confederate flags? Loser POV you mean?
I think “Traitor flag” is succinct.
Why not both?
It’s the flag of traitors *AND* losers
Spike Milligan cracked jokes throughout WW2 and published his journals. So I think a little comedy on a sports blog for the worst team in the nba is fine, probably welcomed.
Hey don’t jinx the worst team thing, there are a lot of games to go.
If, say all the all stars sat out the season, there might be a few teams that finish worse.
As A huge JMan1949 fan for 5+ years and counting, let me say: if today was the day, you made it count. I love your passion and creativity. Here’s to 5+ more years.
JMan may have lost his voice,
But now we all have a choice,
Speak truth to power,
Give fascism a glower,
And in compassion we all could rejoice.
One of the saddest and most disturbing days of my 30 years on this earth. I won’t blame people for completely disconnecting from everything tonight, and I also wouldn’t blame anyone from trying to distract themselves with some sports. Stay safe, everyone.
Thinking back to what I’ve witnessed since the early 50’s I’d have to say this ranks right up there with Kennedy’s assassination, Watergate, & 9/11. Sad.
Ranking this with 9/11??? Not sure I can agree with that.
A man dies, and power passes per succession < a coup against the federal govt.
What is difference is we were all shocked and saddened, and more importantly, united on 9/11, today proves we are not on the same page.
The former was an act of war by a foreign entity. Today is an attempted coup from within.
Well both were terrorist attacks
one had more deaths (but still less than the daily average deaths from COVID this month), and one had hideous implications about the future of our entire country.
They are fully equivalent in magnitude, even if a bit different in action.
This is the first time since 1814 that the capitol building has been breached. I’d say it’s up there with all those, totally.
(Legit, not being sarcastic.)
It’s weird that no one has mentioned that in 1954, Puerto Rican nationalists shot up the House of Representatives, injuring five congressmen.
It’s true!
Good to know.
It was mentioned on some of the TV coverage I saw.
This is scary, but the next few weeks will determine whether or not I rank it up there w/the pandemic & 9/11.
So is Haliburton playing??
I will always read “Gar Forman” as “Abe Froman.
Tbh, I was going to refer to him as the “Hot Seat King of Chicago” but I didn’t think any one would catch it.
It’s tough to slip anything past this group. A lot of varied experiences in here.
Tyrese Haliburton is a patriot and a hero, max this man asap
Tweets by TyHaliburton22
Hell yes, then put his jersey up in the rafters.
Its good to see players, fans. . . hell, everyone here, reacting to this. I’ve been trying to work, but just can’t. Its just disgusting to me what happened at the Capitol. And no, its not political! I don’t give a crap your political party or who you voted for, but inciting a mob who then breaks into OUR HOUSE – the Capitol is the “people’s house,” pisses me the fuck off! Sadly, someone died there today after being shot by Capitol Police. This is the U.S.A., not some damn dictatorship where whoever is in power stays there and makes the rules regardless. I’m embarrassed for this country, pissed, and also determined to speak up and not let shit this go unaddressed again. This is OUR COUNTRY. If you don’t honor the basic traditions like elections, then you are not a patriot – you are a traitor, and you ought to be treated like one.
Sorry for the rant. If you need to run me, I get it, but I just had to get that off my chest.
Yeah, I was ready to be productive today and that pretty much isn’t happening for the rest of the night.
I just read that only 17 have been arrested? Is that for real? Unbelievable.
It almost sounds like the police only protects the citizens they align with politically…
“Nobody could have seen this coming” – nobody.
Another fave: “We’re better than this!”
Honestly, when has that ever been true?
“The party of law and order.”
There’s literally video of the capital police outside opening the gates and letting the rioters storm the steps, which was then followed by them storming the inside of the capital.
14,000 arrested during protests related to George Floyd.
That was also days long and nationwide, a little more time to make those arrests. Hopefuly the Morons parading inside the Capital will be arrested thru facial recognition and facebook etc. photos. To be honest so should all the idiots in jewelry stores and police stations should have been tracked down as well.
If they were brown and black people, they’d be shot on sight.
Let’s call these fucks what they are. Terrorists.
They wouldn’t have gotten within 100 yards of the capitol building before they were shot at.
Hell, if you are black or brown, you’ll get shot just for sleeping in your own bed.
I’d love to hear the counterargument of the person whom downvoted this.
I offered one.
Who downvotes this?
I haven’t been this excited since two rookie quarterbacks for winless teams Drew Bledsoe and Rick Mirer went head to head.
I was working on a short 2D animation project in Photoshop these past few days while simultaneously doing my usual job searching/keeping up with exercising. I was all prepared today to start coloring the frames in and possibly get it all edited together tonight, and I was in such a good mood this morning….and now all the productivity I had planned has gone out the window. Truly such awful things happening.
As someone who’s a bit right of center-right, I’m thoroughly disgusted by what’s happening in DC. As much as I’m not looking forward to an all Dem WH, Senate, and House, I’m also glad that the loud mouth, egomaniacal bully is leaving soon whether he likes it or not. I do think there was a lot of cheating in the election, all in the favor of the Dems, but enough hard proof wasn’t provided to convince a number of judges. That is our system. While I agreed with many of his policies, his tweets, bragging, bullying, self indulgent actions were and are repulsive. What’s sad to me is that us on the right are not supposed to act like BLM/Antifa by destroying property and disrupting people’s lives. He lost and doesn’t have the decency or class to admit it and exhibit any grace. I hope to hell he doesn’t run again.
For the record no proof at all was presented to the courts. None.
Yeah, I’d love to see that long list of hard proof that doesn’t exist.
The only proof of fraud that’s been presented are apparently dead people in Pennsylvania magically voting for Trump. https://thehill.com/homenews/531242-pennsylvania-trump-supporter-charged-with-voter-fraud
I’m always flabbergasted by people who are skeptical of things that are backed by copious amounts of hard evidence (moon landing, spherical Earth, voting results) but need nothing to believe in a conspiracy theory manufactured by some whackadoodle on the fringes of society who probably ties his own shoes together occasionally.
Another one. LMAO
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-supporter-charged-voter-fraud-iowa-election-rigged-clinton-a7386886.html
Also the Nevada ladies:
Roxanne Ruben: https://lasvegassun.com/news/2012/nov/02/southern-nevada-woman-arrested-suspicion-trying-vo/
Jill Stokke:
edit: apparently the link converts into a photo + link
Facts don’t matter in that world.
Don’t be subtweeting Kyrie Irving, now.
The Dems cheated an election with a Republican WH, Senate, Supreme Court, and DOJ, mostly in swing states run predominantly by republicans, with republican legislatures and secretary of states, without a shred of evidence deemed solid enough to sway countless Republican judges (with Trump appointees among them). That’s one hell of a trick.
“Well I believe in God, and the only thing that scares me is Keyser Sobama.”
if the Dems magically did cheat – all those republican ran states are utterly incompetent and should be replaced. and the Dems should be laughed at because they didn’t give themselves the senate with the cheating. Who cheats to lose house seats and not take the senate?
Mike 120 Your guys were in charge, it was their job to stop any cheating, and they have nothing to show it. Furthermore if this was so F’ing obvious and easy, not only to do, but to hide, then why wouldn’t Poppa T do the same… because it is almost F’ing imposible.
From a 55 year old whiteman and lifelong registered Republican (Moderate obviosly) Trump has set us back and all we got was a temporary tax cut.
The Dems really suck at cheating. For the life of me, you would cheat Donald Trump out AND keep Mitch McConnell. Not only that, the Dems ALSO lost HOUSE seats and barely won the SENATE.
As someone who is a democratic socialist, actually been called “champagne socialist,” I hate defending establishment democrats as it is. Don’t make me defend Biden. This is an unintelligent take.
What the hell are you talking about? You think the dems who aren’t even in control of the White House or senate somehow cheated??? Why do you think that? What non refuted information do you have to bring you to that opinion? NONE!!! You are as bad as Trump. Trying to act like you are decent and care while still spewing a baseless conspiracy theory that the dems cheated. Trump, Republicans, and you are anti American.
You and I clearly have differences of political opinion. That’s fine. You can even get emotional about your opinions. But when you question my “American-ness” without ever meeting me face to face you are out of line and I’m calling you out on it.
I wouldn’t question yours, but I absolutely question patriotism of the insurgents who invaded the capitol today, as well as the people who incited them to do it.
…as well as the people that continue to defend it.
As I said, I didn’t like it at all. The storming of the Capitol and the stupid drivel coming out of DJT’s Big Mac hole. I am going to guess that this dissipates quickly by the Trump supporters as they go home. It won’t drag on for 100 days like the crap in Portland.
Fair on the first point. I wouldn’t imply you said otherwise. I agree that what happened in Portland went too far for too long, and on some level stopped being about the original intent. However, we’re talking about invading the United States Capitol during an election count. This will be in history books forever. That will be a footnote at best.
As far as the timeline goes, the people who committed this act, and the people who support them, and the person who incited this insurrection are not going away.
This is why it’s better to keep things sports than to delve into politics on this site.
Having a different opinion is not welcome in a space like this.
And no, I’m not saying I agree with Mike120, but I do believe he has the right to voice his opinion without the mob coming after him and bullying him.
And please be civil in your language, those cussing sound no different than you know who.
You aren’t saying you don’t, either.
oh he does. He’s just upset that people disagree with Mike120’s unproven statements. He’d like everyone to not talk about facts, since they are not welcome.
How is he not welcomed? He posted his comment. He wasn’t denied to post or anything. If you open up your opinion for discussion (especially outlandish rigged claims), a lot of people would comment on both sides of the aisle. That’s how forums like these work.
He’s not getting bullied. He’s just flat out wrong on his election claims.
Disagreement != bullying
Ummm, if you post known disinformation and lies, expect to get a strong response back.
Having bullshit opinions that have no proof to back them up aren’t welcome in a space like this.
What’s your Parler user name?
I believe it is @GrantNapearshow
Correct. He has the right to voice his opinion. And we have the right to challenge him to support that opinion with evidence. The same way we do when someone starts throwing around basketball hot takes.
“Look, Vlade was the best general manager in the history of the NBA, nay, sport.
“Proof? He was tall! What more do you need, snowflake?”
If you haven’t seen the undefeated Jets skit it ispretty “funny”?
“Why is TKH so unwelcoming to andy_sims?”
You might actually be Peaches.
Too reasonable and literate.
Touting a debunked conspiracy theory is not a different opinion it’s a lie
I feel for you. I have family who are life long republicans, including my Texas raised mother-in-law. They too are disgusted by the man in charge. They by no means are fans of the Democrats, but this year they just couldn’t swallow another 4 years of the same thing.
I appreciate your words. I knew writing what I did that TKH is in general to the left of me. I was voicing my anger in both Trump’s words and actions and of the mob crashing the Capitol. Got my big boy pants on and people can say what they want. To the guy who called me un-American: does that pertain to my two US Navy tours in the Persian Gulf away from my family a total of 11 months?
First, thank you for your service. You are welcome to say what you want, but yeah, a basketball blog in deep blue Cali is going to lean a certain way, so you I have expect blowback. I’m about as left as they come, but I’m tired of yelling. Sometimes having a civil conversation with those you don’t agree with is the best action. I’ve learned that skill with my mother-in-law. I feel there are those that I can still “reach” with my opinions without fistacuffs.
All that being said, I don’t think the people who acted today can be reasoned with. We are at a ever closing precipice and one man is responsible for slamming his foot on the gas pedal.
I’m kinda with you on this. Really want the tone to die down. And I appreciate civil differences of opinion. I might learn something. You might too. Not nearly as much fun talking with those who agree with you. Very unhappy with Trump since he lost. He’s all about himself trying to disguise it about being for the country. I see it. Romney, Gore, McCain, Kerry hated losing too but they did so with grace. You gotta admit, Hillary is still having a hard time with it. Maybe I’m naive but I want to believe there are only 10% crazies on both side and 80% of us while not all in agreement can get along.
I’m not sure about Hillary, but I was never a fan of hers. But I do know she is not a blatant racist, sexual predator, and incite violence from her followers.
I’m genuinely curious – were you looking for the tone to die down over the last four years when Trump was attacking anyone and everyone outside of his base?
Or just now, when Trump has clearly lost his reelection bid?
I don’t think military service makes someone immune from doing un-American things.
Edited to add – definitely not implying you are un-American, I just think that’s a red herring (used by Bill above as well).
Just providing a little context. Haven’t met any of you personally. Agree with you that military service doesn’t provide a patriotic blanket.
Suspect a lot of vets would agree with this.
My cousin is Jewish and is in special forces. He’s fluent in Hebrew and Arabic. He has served in places America is not supposed to be. He has many stories of folks in the military who have no business being there either due to their racism, ignorance, sociopathic tendencies or combination of all three. I’m sure the majority of them are pure in intentions and are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice, but there are a percentage that would terrify the rest of us.
I read that the rioter who died after being shot at the Capitol served in the Air Force for 14 years, so that’s a pretty clear example of that.
And while I don’t agree with what this person was doing, it’s tragic that she is gone. I assume she was unarmed, which is always a bad look for the police, and part of the problem with letting the mob through. Cops end up outnumbered and surrounded, and then bad things happen.
Yeah, that was definitely a cheap shot and not OK. The election stuff is nonsense, as I posted above, but I otherwise appreciate your resonableness. I appreciate that least it’s a discussion and not a war on your end.
“Whatever may have been my political opinions before, I have but one sentiment now. That is, we have a Government, and laws and a flag, and they must all be sustained. There are but two parties now, traitors and patriots”
This is the only leg you have to stand on here, in agreeing with many of “his policies” I question your judgement on such matters. Children in cages? Letting Americans in Puerto Rico die? Doing nothing while hundreds of thousands of Americans died during the pandemic? Where was your line?
Children in cages began under Obama. Both were wrong to employ it. Trump didn’t let Americans die in PR. People die during natural disasters regardless who is President. Trump marshaled resources to fight Covid. Hospitals, operation warp speed, working with private companies to make PPE, ventilators, etc. Could he have done more? Of course. There always lessons learned in the aftermath of disasters. I’d like to see the rhetoric be brought down and see calm voices on the right and left lead the country out of the place we are now.
Mike Thank you for your service for sure, and I hear you. But what the pandemic showed me is we cannot be an island nation. Without solid ties to places hostile or friendly we are really just in the dark… until something knocks us on our ass such as the CV. We need more connections, not less, globally, and locally. Just My humble opinion.
Thank you for that. Certainly, the world is interconnected and good relations with other countries are important. But I think it’s also perfectly fine for each country to stand up for itself and not surrender its identity to a global consensus. I wouldn’t expect another country to accept subservience to America.
Obama’s fault was not replenishing our emergency stock of medical supplies.
THAT however, pales in comparison to what Trump has done during and before the pandemic. He abolished our pandemic response team that was built from the ground up by Clinton/Bush/Obama as a way to mostly combat bio-terrorist attacks.
Trump kept denying COVID during December calling it a democratic hoax. When we finally got the first case in Washington, he said it will go away in a few weeks. Refused to wear a mask, refused to have mask mandates (which Biden seems against as well). Refused lockdowns when they were proven to curb the infected rates. You want people to stay home? Pay them. Instead most of the money went to billionaires again. Surprise, surprise.
He definitely could’ve done better. But his irresponsibility and hubris has cost 300k lives. “It is what it is,” right?
So no governors, mayors or individuals deserve any scrutiny? Every death is on Trump?
Not every. Be he is the captain of the ship. Where does the buck stop?
It stopped with him. People didn’t like how he handled it and that is one of the reasons he lost. I’m all about accountability.
Agreed.
This may be a fair criticism, but the pandemic happened in year three of the Trump admin. There’s not much room for blaming the previous guy if you had three years to fix a problem.
Well, the guy politicized masks, blamed others, and held numerous mass spreader events. I give him zero credit in the fight against COVID. Just because he did something doesn’t mean he should be given credit. One only needs to see how the other leaders of the free world handled COVID to understand how Trump bungled things.
So did you like how China handled it? Dragging people out of their homes, disappearing journalists who reported things, kicking out international inspectors, allowing their people to fly all over the world knowing they were infected?