Well, here we are at the end of all things. One final basketball game between us and the worst year since… well, probably 2019. The Kings are in Houston today, hoping to light a fire under a few very thick and sputtering Rockets to celebrate the turning of the calendar. Say goodbye to Tiger King, murder hornets, and James Harden’s last shred of dignity. We’re leaving all that behind in 2020, baby.
Let’s talk Kings basketball.
When: Thursday, December 31st, 4:00 PM PST
Where: Toyota Center, Houston, TX
TV: NBCSCA, Kyle Draper on the call.
Radio: KHTK Sports 1140 AM
For Your Consideration
Distant Cousins: There are two things I could say I’m looking forward to Thursday night – one rhymes with “My niece, have a bourbon” and the other is watching DeMarcus Cousins finally healthy enough to go up against the Kings. Sure, there isn’t a single guy on this squad that Boogie got to actually play with, but there is an heir apparent to his “best player in Sacramento” and that kid did get a max extension where DeMarcus did not. Obviously slightly different timelines and very different general managers, but the fact remains, DeMarcus could and should still feel slighted by the actions the Kings franchise took in his final days with them. Despite his surly disposition and ability to tear asunder various fan elements in Sacramento, DeMarcus spent the longest and best years of his career in purple and is always someone I look forward to seeing compete against the Kings. There’s very few people I root for to in their attempts to beat my team – Harry Giles was a rare example in preseason. But despite all of those flaws, I did support DeMarcus wholeheartedly and wanted him to find success and make Vlade Divac regret his decisions later on. It genuine hurt to see him go down in New Orleans, and go down again in Golden State and get pushed away in Los Angeles. The further he slips from what should have been the best years of his career, the harder I root for him to do anything that proves he’s still got it. Tonight will be his first regular season game after he had to quarantine due to an exposure to someone with COVID-19 on the Rockets staff somewhere. He’s seemingly healthy, he’s had a fairly decent preseason and I guarantee he’s a little extra motivated to put on a good show against the Kings. I’m really hoping he beats up on the Sacramento frontline tonight, if just for old time’s sake. The league was more interesting with a dominant Boogie Cousins causing havoc all over the country. If we can’t have it full-time, I’ll take hit to my fan credibility and hope it’s tonight.
The Rockets in general are a mess. New head coach Stephen Silas had his hands full already having to follow-up legendary coach Mike D’Antoni and make his own mark on a team that’s just never been able to crest the hill to a Finals appearance. Toss in trading Russell Westbrook for John Wall and James Harden breaking NBA protocols and touring strip clubs around the country like he was attempting a Guy Fieri style television program called Chicken Strips, Strip Clubs and Fines, and you might start to see how whatever Coach Silas is getting paid… it ain’t enough. Now, please remember that the Kings had lost 10 straight in Houston before last December’s one point victory. By the time this gets published we might know who is playing in the game and who still has to hold back due to COVID precautions but one thing is for certain: if James Harden is playing, the Kings are going to have a rough time trying to win this game. The man could pack on another 20 pounds and I wouldn’t care one bit. If he can run between the three point arcs for 30 minutes, the Rockets have a good shot of winning this game. Last thing, please check out Christian Wood and how well he’s playing to start the season. The kid was a fantastic pickup for Houston and I wish the Kings could have found a way to snatch him up.
Finally, I want to close the book on 2020 by looking back for a moment on this time last year – before we knew The Kings Herald would be a success, before we knew that our world would be plunged into despair over Coronavirus and issues of racial and social injustice, before I knew I would lose my career, half way lose my mind, grow my hair to my shoulders, have a couple of COVID scares, and move away from it all to clear my head. This year was unlike any other we may ever experience again, and if I can say one thing outside of the normal sermonizing, it’s that I hope all that we’ve seen this terrible year inspires an active pursuit for change in every walk of your life on scales national, local and personal. This collection of people started 2020 determined to start something of our own – I speak not just of these writers but this community as a whole. You tweeted and plead and kept pressure on us to stay the course and build this site, then you crashed the servers minutes after launch and you’ve stuck around for every wild twist and turn after it. You’ve bought our merch, argued in our comments, listened to us argue amongst each other on every possible communication medium. Outside of keeping my home and being blessed to see my family’s health through this year, all my major successes of this cursed year I share with you and the staff here at The Kings Herald. Whether publicly or privately, you all pushed me to continue, to keep improving, to challenge who I could be as a member of this community. I close 2020 proud of who I’ve become during these times and I thank you all for being a part of it.
To your health and happiness in the New Year.
Prediction
De’Aaron Fox loves playing in Houston so I’m betting he goes for 40 points tonight to close out the year strong. Marvin Bagley tries to prove himself against the oldhead Boogie and Boogie finds his was into a technical for old times sake. The Kings finally pick up their three point attempts and take over 40 for the first time this season.
Kings: 123, Rockets: 119
I will never understand rooting for a guy like Cousins to “beat up on the Sacramento frontline.” This is a guy who threatened to kill his ex and is years removed from his time in Sacramento. As a true Kings fan, I never root against my team. I hope he goes 0-10 and the Kings win handily.
Agreed. Hope whiteside stuffs him at the rim
DMC was a bully and a horrible teammate, I hope he gets rolled by the Kings frontline tonight.
Giving you a rec for this.
Definitely wasn’t thinking of anything outside of basketball context when going through this stuff at 2 am. My appreciation for DeMarcus and his time here leads to me wishing him exacting a bit of petty punishment from the franchise that embarrassed him in front of the world during an All-Star Game where he represented him.
I will say that I’m glad he’s no longer a King, especially considering all that has gone on in his personal life since then. Appreciate you bringing up that ugly side of things, Krish because it is CERTAINLY relevant and my sleep deprived brain went right by it last night.
Freudian slip? Pretty much sums up his career
Word. This is also the same guy who punched (or at least tried to punch) Donte Greene because Donte had the audacity to inbound the ball to Tyreke Evans late in a game. Donte Greene. That is like kicking a puppy.
Despite donate green not being a good basketball player, he seemed like a great teamate and a guy you like having on the bench.
There was that time too he went after a 70 year old reporter in a hostile and threatening manner for daring to mention his brother in an article. And IIRC I do not think he said anything derogatory about his brother.
Set aside the temper and toxic personality, it took Cousins 5 years to get into elite NBA shape. He did not maximize his immense talent because he did not train hard enough. I would contend his suboptimal work ethic, carrying 20-40 extra pounds during most of his tenure with us, contributed in a way to his run of injuries.
No, it is not his fault completely he tore his ACL and Achilles, and I think his quad tendon too, but if you are doing explosive movements as basketball demands while carrying extra weight, you increase your injury susceptibility.
Vlade did a lot wrong but choosing not give Cousins the franchise tag and frachise deal was not one of his mistakes. Thank God for that, because I think if he would not have had a serious injury with the other teams, he would have had a similar injury with us.
I apparently had forgotten about his off court issues. I always hoped maturity would take care of his on court antics.
DMC could be back on the court,
Though the minutes he plays could be short.
Neither he nor John Wall
Have played real games at all.
Likely not the main men, just support!
Sounds like most of the Rockets dudes are back tonight so I sort of expect the Kings to get smoked. The Rockets D will be bad but their offense could be awesome with Woods in the fold.
I’m hoping the rockets are in disarray for this game.
Terrific writing, per your usual WG. I am always a bit surprised of your support for DMC, especially with what Jerry inferred on your podcast, about being impossible to coach.
Whew. Just deleted a long DMC diatribe, would rather not go back to the time where my Kings fandom was teetering after enjoying the team since the Phil Ford-Otis Birdsong- Sam Lacey years.
Back to tonight. This team has been fun to watch. I cant remember when the Kings have expended this much effort all game long, nor had this many players step up for big plays, or to carry a quarter. We haven’t even seen the offense really explode yet, we haven’t even had a big Buddy Buckets game yet. Hiring good assistant coaches, drafting well, having Bagley back, and picking up a couple of cheap veteran FA’s have already changed the flavor of this team, I am excited to see how it plays out.
Most of my appreciation is a mix of nostalgia for where the Kings were right as DMC was peaking, disappointment in the way he was sent off and a good helping of pity for how his career has been since then.
Not to get to into the weeds here but I had a close personal friend that for much of our early friendship reminded me of the reputation DeMarcus incurred – polar opposites on and off the court (Though admittedly, this was before his recent incidents with an ex-SO) and seeing that man later in life get the help he needed and blossoming into someone complete new always left that pang of disappointment that we never saw it completely click for DeMarcus… That he never turned that flash into fire and focused it all on the court. His NBA story is certainly more tragedy than triumph and much of it is his own making.
Now admittedly, writing and editing this down, I absolutely wasn’t thinking of the legal issues DMC now faces. That massive oversite is on me. I’ll also say that off air, Jerry and I have at times had great conversations where we disagree (on small things, of course) but hearing that DMC was uncoachable was never one that rang false. I trust Jerry on that one, 10,000% because we could also see it, every single day.
Boogie’s relationship was so complicated in Sacramento, and it never working out left a strange hole in that period of time when looking back on it. I root for him more as a figure I still hope to turn it (ALL OF IT) around, and that evolution would definitely entail overcoming the team that he started with in some capacity.
We are going to close out 2020 on the right foot with a big win over Houston in Houston!
Maybe I’m just being homerish here, but how is this game not on national TV?
Seems like a lot of interest around this game. First game back together in over 10 years for UK Wildcats Wall and Cousins. First game they have played this season. First game Rockets at seemingly full strength… Plus the Kings are playing well.
Should be fun.
Smacking my head on the desk right now. Might just delete this preview and start over….
ENDING 2020 STRONG!!!
Do we get a GIF of you banging your head on the desk? Asking….for a friend.
Just curious, is zillercat tom ziller? Our old sactownroyalty fearless leader?
No Tom Ziller has talent. Just another Avatar.
No. TZ has an actual account and has posted on it occasionally awhile ago now. ZC is a separate poster who posts regularly (and I don’t remember if he was ever at the old spot or not) and usually can be spotted posting awesome GIF’s (IMO).
I don’t think Ziller has an actual account, though I may be wrong. I originally created this account with the username TomZiller (fully expecting that it wouldn’t be available), and then when it surprisingly went through it was too late to change.
I’d totally forgotten about it until someone called me out later on, so the staff changed my name at my request lol
Oh, well, then I guess there ya go.
lol I just wanted an excuse to post the pic since it’s like bizarro world that Whiteside is on the Kings in 2020 playing against Cousins.
Lol i was thinking about Whiteside but figured maybe he never really played that year
Haha. The writing was excellent though, and the Harden jan was a slayer!
Whiteside definitely got bigger
Boogie looks relatively thin and fit in this picture, which supports what I said about him. He gained weight after coming into the NBA. He had superstardom in the palm of his hands, but his cocky and arrogant personality belied him. He got fat and did not train hard enough and did not commit to being the best version of himself. His career took suboptimal course as a result.
This was maybe my favorite preview among some pretty stiff competition, maybe it’s the last portion. It’s been the mother of all sad country songs for me this year, but whenever I want to vomit it out loud, I’m reminded how many people have had it much, much worse. We should probably have a purge thread to celebrate all that’s behind us.
That being said, WHAT A JOY it was filling out the prediction thread and answering, Kings, Kings, Kings, and believing every single response to my very soul. I’ve jinxed it now I suppose.
Still waiting for my 2020 T-shirt.
I’m glad Cousins has no chance of “Mentoring” Tyrese.
4pm? Now I’ll never make it to midnight!
hashtag old man problems
Tonight we’re going to party like it’s 1951!
Great preview Will, as per usual.
Hopefully 2021 works out better for you, and everyone else around here.
You are nice. I wish you and Otis and that pantless dude and all the foreigners from places like Dutchland and Denver and everyone in TKH member unofficial fantasy league and all the fired Vox people and that Titan fan “writer” and Antelope David and the poet and anyone named Brad nothing but poop!
?itemid=10390030
Trading Places is an auto-rec. Too bad you ain’t worth it, you fabulous Twitter troll!
I appreciate you, sir. Going to try to make my own luck next year, instead of wait for it to arrive so I’m sure you’ll have to read various previews where I’ve lost limbs or something drastic. Happy New Year, Guru!
Bagley going to come out to prove himself and knight Magic Counsins style.
Translation: PARTY AT WILL’S IN 2021!
IF you can find a full Muppet costume by today at 4 pm, you can come to my NYE Party… which consists entirely of my traditional watching of The Muppets (the recent one with Jason Segel) and falling asleep at 10 pm.
Just wondering, is the Nostradumbass Leaderboard still a thing anymore?
1. I just got an email from TKH saying my account has been deleted which is really strange because I don’t feel deleted
2. Every time Harden loses my soul warms a little bit, so let’s end this turd if a year with an extra uplifting victory. Go Kings!
Yeah, I got it too. Glad to see it wasn’t just me.
Same here. Glad as well it wasn’t just me.
my concern was I may have gotten hacked.
hopefully all is well.
Will, what is your address?
This is the email I got:
Kosta, our envites got deleted?
I blame Greg.
You can be one of my 200 guests, ZC!
Now we just need a couple of black suits, hats and sunglasses…
I need you.. you .. you
Head towards Rancho Cordova and start listening for my rendition of “Rainbow Connection” and police sirens. You won’t be able to miss it.
And if you get lost, you can just drive to Jackson Rancheria instead.
Looks like we were doing some site updating and this was sent out in error. You’re safe everyone!
I figured it was just a sneaky way of getting me to log back in 🙂
The perfect click-bait.
Just a little blip. It was the Kangzherald for a moment.
OT I just got an email saying my KH acct got deleted. Just wondering.
The aforementioned email lol.
I just got that email too. Must be some kind of bug.
For everyone else it was a mistake. For you and Greta Gerwig, it was very real. Goodbye forever, Klam.
Damn. Drama Thursdays!!!
You missed the GIF of the drive home where you cross the J St bridge, hit Westbound Biz 80 and in between somehow manage to hit the I St bridge.
That was the loopty loops of drivetimes!
Will, you spelled Greivis Gerwig wrong!
YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO KNOW HOW TO SPELL IT CORRECTLY!!!
Kosta…. welcome to the resistance.
YOU LEAVE GRETA ALONE
I thought it was phishing.
I’m guessing Greg got drunk last night and deleted the accounts of those of us he hates.
And then Blake woke up in the morning and fixed everything.
Will doing PR damage control.
I can just imagine Greg doing the Vince Mcmahon meme.
We are the deleted!
One of us! One of us!
Off-topic: Just received an email saying my account was deleted but came here to login and check. Is this some sort of phishing email? Everything looks good to me. Very strange to receive that notification. Admins?
Looks like there was an error and this happened to a bunch of people. Your accounts are safe and you’ll probably be getting an email from us soon about what happened.
Greg ruined the Kings Herald email notifications.
Thank God. I thought I had enjoyed too many Plinys and professed my love for the Maloof on here last night.
I got the message too, but I am logged in now. Fake email or did TKH’s get hacked? It came from no-reply@kingsherald.com
Looks like we were doing some site updating and this was sent out in error. You’re safe.
Should be a great game.
wow I got an email from TKH that says my account has survived the purge based solely on my “boyish charm.”
The Rordog¢ bribes you sent to TKH headquarters worked like a charm.
oh wow they even gave me the 3k badge as a little token of gratitude. Thanks Mods!
Welcome to the Purple Club.
I need to win Nostradumbass and write a one sentence article, so we can look like these guys in the comments:
Make more comments. Then you can be a true purple member.
I’m excited to hopefully see Fox vs Wall ¡ï¸¡ï¸
As much as it tends to frustrate me, Fox does seem to get up more to 1v1 matchups against guys he’s compared to. That said, let’s hope he can get the better of a guy playing his first real game in 2 years.
Some of you may know this already but when we (you) all left the old site and The Kings Herald became the main hub for Kings fandom, I, unfortunately, did not get that memo. I was stuck in a very dark place. I don’t want to go too far into the details but imagine going to Bleacher Report for your Kings related news. Needless to say, it was a difficult time. But after months of hearing about Kings through unnecessary insults and horrible trade machine requests I decided I had had enough. I sat at my desk, closed my eyes for a second and went to the only thing I’ve known to help in these hard times, Google. I typed, “Kings Fan site” and I nearly cried because at that moment I fount you all. You all are the first bookmark on my web browser (followed by Tankathon and NBA Streams) and the last place I check before falling asleep. We have an amazing community and I am excited for the growth in the coming years. I wish you all enter 2021 in good health and with a Sacramento Kings winning streak! Thank you again!
How I imagine that felt.
More like this
I’m the one in yellow
LOL. “Blame Greg”
I’m a patsy!
I’m fairly sure Klam is the Louise of TKH. The only question is does he wear bunny ears. It takes true audaciousness to pull that off.
Best banner ever, and good way to end 2020!
Man, 2020 can’t end soon enough ..
If you received an email saying your account was deleted, please ignore. Your account is still active. Blame Greg.
The account deletions will continue until morale improves.
My 2021 wishes: riches, and that Harden gets traded to the Cavaliers
Edit – spelling
My only hope/expectation from this game is another solid performance from Haliburton. A win would be nice too but not necessary. Don’t think a 4-1 start would translate to a solid overall season performance by the Kings.
My hopes for Halburton were deleted by Greg!
Is there any reason this game should be blacked out in Sacramento today? I cannot find the solution to why every game is blacked out on my sling tv app, although I purchased the package. Anyone have any pro tips to fix this?
Geez, TKH, I’ve been a bit less attentive for like 4 days. Don’t go getting all passive aggressive on me.
I can understand putting out the cats … you Too?
If the Kings begin their inevitable regression starting tonight, I will have no choice but to eternally blame Greg.
The most joy I’ve had as a kings fan in the last 10 years was finding out cousins had been traded for buddy and tyreke. I never liked cousins and hope bagley and holmes destroy him. I really want us to win tonight, but I think we lose 116-110. Harden gets 37 for the game high.
This probably belongs in a different thread, but I’m gonna leave it here.
Notwithstanding his efficient scoring and excellent defense, through 4 games, Tyrese has 21 assists and 3 turnovers.
Let’s consider the 3 turnovers.
The first was a very dubious traveling call that IMO would not have been called on most veterans. The second was a play where Hali had to blindly leap out of bounds to try and recover an errant pass and he threw it to the other team. The third was Buddy handing him the ball in the final seconds of regulation against Denver as the shot clock expired.
As far as I’m concerned, only the first of the three qualifies as a mistake, and even then, just barely. So, really, official stats aside, the man’s got a 21:1 assist-turnover ratio on the season so far. Just unconscionable.
Here is the list of players in NBA history who have met or exceeded that ratio:
https://stathead.com/tiny/fsqB0
Plus, even if all three TO’s had been legit, here is the list of players in NBA history who have done what Tyrese just did:
https://stathead.com/tiny/zRdxo
Nothing short of phenomenal. And he does it all with such calm and composure.
Great writeup Will. Go Kings!
Last game he threw a bad pass behind Cojo near Half-court that I thought was his 2nd TO
Yeah at the 9:34 mark of the 2nd Quarter he had his worst TO of the year. He throws a pass behind CoJo just in front of the half-court line.
Not sure if that Buddy TO actually counts as a TO
it did, he’s had 3 TOs – the 1st was the falling-out-of-bounds desperation save attempt that he couldn’t quite get to a teammate, the 2nd was the miscommunication pass behind Cojo and the 3rd was the rookie hazing TO from Buddy.
Fox. Harden. Next.
Badge Legend