Charlotte Hornets receive permission to interview Jordi Fernandez
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Hornets received permission to interview Jordi Fernandez, along with several other candidates.
ESPN Sources: The Hornets have secured permission to interview several assistants for franchise’s head coaching opening: Denver’s David Adelman, Sacramento’s Jordi Fernandez, Boston’s Charles Lee and Phoenix’s Kevin Young. More candidates are expected to be interviewed.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 4, 2024
Given the other quality candidates the Hornets will be interviewing, there’s no guarantee that Jordi will be heading to Charlotte. That said, Jordi is going to be a top candidate for any coaching jobs that open up this summer, Charlotte is simply the first. Sadly, it seems probable that this is Jordi’s final season in Sacramento. It’ll be sad to see him go, but I’ll be happy for him whenever his opportunity comes to helm his own staff.
Some love for Keon Ellis
The Athletic’s Anthony Slater wrote a great profile on Keon Ellis.
Brown is trying to reform the Kings’ defensive identity and, in the 6-foot-6 Ellis, he feels he’s found a developing cog.
Brown and other members of his coaching staff use two words to describe Ellis’ defense: hands and instincts. Since he became a starter after the Huerter injury, his 24 deflections are the eighth most in the NBA. He averaged nearly two steals per game in March. He’s a menace off the ball, jumping passing lanes, while also handling some of the tougher one-on-one assignments.
It’s worth your time to read the whole thing. It includes great insights to Keon’s journey to the Kings, and how both Keon and the team view his future.
The A’s
The Oakland A’s will play in Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park for at least the next three seasons. Sacramento Kings Chairman Vivek Ranadivé bought the field and the River Cats in 2022, and is very proud of himself for bringing another professional sports team to Sacramento, even if it is only temporary.
Meanwhile, I’m stuck on the issue of Vivek helping facilitate John Fisher’s exit from Oakland. I know many fans won’t care, and I really won’t fault anyone who takes advantage of the opportunity to see Major League Baseball in such an intimate venue. But Kings fans fought back against bad ownership and their attempts to relocate the Kings, eventually leading to Vivek owning the Kings. For Vivek to now provide a stepping stone for the A’s to leave Oakland feels shitty.
Anyway, do you want to know the terrifying truth about billionaires extorting cities for stadium financing, or do you want to see me sock a few dingers?
Vivek helping John Fisher move the A’s is profoundly disgusting. And people around here are acting extra thirsty about it, too.
Oakland could have kept the team. They couldn’t keep the Warriors and lost the Raiders twice. Vivek stepped in a saw an opportunity. As any business owner would do. This will be a very good thing for the Sacramento area. And I’m not an A’s fan, but I will go to some games.
I will when the play the Doders.
I’m looking forward to seeing local MLB baseball. If that makes me thirsty, so be it.
Important to note that the team is not relocating to Sac – it is moving to Vegas. Yes, this move helps the A’s retain a larger portion of their TV deal than had they moved elsewhere, and the City of Oakland and A’s fans have made it abundantly (and appropriately) clear that they are done with Fisher.
I feel very badly for A’s fans, but under these circumstances I will feel no guilt over taking advantage of the small window opportunity to see major league baseball in the River City.
Fill ‘er up!
Yeah, I’ve already heard dozens of times about how it’s cool *this* time because now we can wade through the snarled infrastructure near my neighborhood to see a more expensive version of what is already there, or because somebody has political opinions about Oakland, or because billionaires gonna billionaire, or whatever.
Gross. But congratulations, I guess.
Thank you. I’ve been in the game (non-professionally) for 59 years now, and I am really looking forward to it.
In my older years I have relegated myself to AAA baseball, due to its convenience over traveling to the Bay Area. But there is an exponential difference between AAA and the Majors, much in the same way that there is an exponential difference between the Stockton and Sacramento Kings.
The chance to see Ohtani? Judge? Harper? And so on? Yes, please.
All of this said, my preference would have been for a ballpark and a team in Oakland that the loyal fans there deserve. Absent of that, I’m not going to feel any guilt for catching games in my own back yard, and can’t fathom why I should.
I don’t think any fans need to feel any guilt about anything, since this whole thing is John Fisher’s doing (Oakland could have handled things better, but that man has proved he doesn’t operate in good faith). Hell, if the opportunity presents itself, I’m likely to catch the Giants play there.
I’m just saying that anyone who is vocally excited about this but had strong feelings about Seattle during the Here We Stay days, or who chipped in on that Vivek billboard, should spare a moment to look inward and ponder that cognitive dissonance.
I care about the Kings, I don’t care about the A’s. I’ll go see the Phillies and a few other teams and enjoy the hell out of MLB just a few blocks from light rail.
This era of public-financing is coming to a close, I don’t think we’ll have to worry about it much longer. Everything about MLB has been shrinking except the stadiums, it’s only a matter of time.
I should say I don’t care about them NOW. If they stay long-term I would imagine I would become an instant fan.
I respect that. If this is a gateway to Sac. getting an expansion team, great. But I have no interest in pillaging another city’s team.
It was never about Seattle for me. It was about Hansen and/or Ballmer and the Maloofs. The Seattle fan base would have been the benefactors, but they really had no sway in the matter. The A’s are certainly not moving to Vegas due to the groundswell of fan support there.
My theory is that by remaining close to Oakland for the next few years, something can be figured out to move them back from Sacramento at some point.
Oakland has been cursed with dogshit owners of its professional teams, and the results are, in a word, unfair.
I can’t understand at all why Bay area fans of the former Oakland Raiders would still support the team, buy gear, etc., after having it stolen away from them three times (Is it three? I’ve honestly lost count.).
When the Kings were talking about relocation, I said that if they moved any farther than Folsom, the Maroons would never get another dime from me. I’d have moved my focus back to college hoops and let the NBA rot.
Loyalty should be a two-way street, and continuing to shove money at owners who have zero regard for the fans is a sucker move.
Rob…I agree with every point you made. I don’t care about their sleezy owner or the City of Oakland. If Oakland was serious about keeping the team they could have worked it out years ago. I’m a Giants fan since they moved to San Francisco (or maybe a few years after) and nothing is going to change that.
I will say this….the A’s are moving into a sweet little Ball Park and for the time the A’s are here Sacramento will be the best place to watch MLB baseball in the country.
I have no doubt that every game will be a sell out regardless of the A’s win loss record.
The A’s have publicly stated they are going to Vegas for months. Vivek has nothing to do with that. The Coliseum is garbage and MLB has said it is unsuitable for years.
Vivek has a stadium. The Coliseum has been deemed unsuitable by MLB. The A’s need a place to play baseball.
Wow, that sounds familiar. Like… really familiar. I could swear I’ve seen that situation before, if I could just put my finger on where it was.
Yeah…and the City of Sacramento teamed up with a billionaire.
The Kings are here because of the billionaire and the city agreeing to keep them here.
Yeah, well, good luck getting senpai’s attention.
?
A bit catty to say that Vivek is “very proud of himself”. He’s a billionaire friend of another billionaire. While his earlier management of the Kings on court operations left much to be desired, he deserves a ton of credit for stepping up and keeping them here. I think it’s different than when Seattle was trying to take the Kings. Sacramento went all out to keep their team. Oakland is a dump and has the worst stadium in the league. Their fans do not support the team. They averaged about 6500 over the recent homestand and that included a 3 game series with the Red Sox (my favorite team) whose fans show up. My son went to two games with his friend. He said it was so empty.
It never felt to me that Sacramento was trying to lure the A’s from Oakland. Oakland’s city council made ridiculous demands of the A’s to pay a $97M “extension fee” and other things. The A’s only pay $1.5M/yr to play there. Why would they agree to that fee? The Warriors left, the Raiders left, and it was inevitable that the A’s would leave. This is a reflection of that city’s management over many years, much more than owner greed IMO. In the not to distant past, I would go when the Red Sox came to play, but stopped when safety and crime became an issue for me. Yes, I feel bad for the A’s fans in the Bay area. But let’s be honest, the fans and the city management didn’t support the team. It’s a zero sum game. One side wins, one side loses. West Sac will most likely just be a temporary home. We’re not the bad guys here.
I think the issue of building stadiums should be a 50/50 partnership between the owner and the city. Both benefit and both should pony up.
Vivek has the money and the ability to do things with that money. Nothing wrong with that.
That’s a fair sentiment, one I both agree and disagree with. However, public financing usually loses at the ballot boxes, so we are where we are.
The saga of the A’s has been going on for over a decade. Yeah a billionaire wanted something from Oakland.
Oakland never countered with anything feasible. Oakland walked away from the A’s before the ownership walked away from Oakland.
Perfectly said.
Nice article about Murray from yesterday in the Athletic too
I went on the Lukenbill organized bus trip to an A’s game back shortly after he brought the Kings here. IMO, the A’s should have split time between Sac and Oakland and rebranded as the NorCal A’s back in the 90’s
Sutter Health Park will probably take 15k fans per game, and my guess is that all games will be sold out. To compare, the A’s went over 15k fans 11 times last year, and 2 of those were the Bay Bridge series. Conversely, they drew fewer than 10k fans 45 times.
None of the above is the fault of the A’s fans. Fisher created the environment. But as a short-term weigh station, SHP will work for the A’s. And anyone that attended either ballpark last year knows that SHF is in exponentially better condition. They will certainly have to make improvements to the clubhouse (as well as adding one for the visitors!), and maybe work on the parking and the ingress / egress?
And 1 – As a lifelong Giants fan, can I just say, fuck the Giants for this one? Years ago the Giants were on the precipice of relocating, and the A’s made some territory concessions to assist in the Giants staying in the Bay Area. Now that the shoe has been on the other foot, the Giants have not budged a bit, granted one concession or re-gifted any territorial rights. That is some bullshit.
Oh wow I wasn’t aware of that. In that case, I 2nd that “Fuck the Giants”
Not that it would have saved the city of Oakland, but it would have at least made Santa Clara or San Jose an alternative, which would have been a better option for A’s fans than Vegas.
And I see what you did there, Greg.
after hearing Vivek’s comments with Sean, and taking a deep breath, closing my eyes and gazing out over the compound…..
It appears as though we are now at war with Vegas.
It’s a win-win for two filthy rich friends. Vivek gives Fisher leverage, Fisher gives Vivek an opportunity to jump up the expansion / relocation list. Greasy as hell, but this is the life of major league sports. It is just not right for taxpayers to foot the bills for these things, but there is always a city that is willing to do it. Supply, meet demand.
Barely. I feel like the well is drying up.
If MLB were to just magically ((((shrink))), it would solve all their problems. 15,000 seat stadiums, cut payroll by 75%.
It’s notable that the public financing plans that are successful these days don’t involve referendums that residents can vote on.
The sales tax extension in KC just went down to defeat, right? Two straight SB wins couldn’t get that one over the hump.
Yup. Soundly.
i could be mistaken, but my understanding is that the public funds Fisher has from Vegas (which is only part of what he needs) was approved by the city but not through a vote, and that a lawsuit from the local teachers’ union is tying it up for the moment as a result.
Agreed. When players are getting half billion dollar contracts something’s not right. Top players would gladly play for $5M/yr if that was the norm. And fans could easily afford to go to multiple games. No sympathy for the billionaire owners but they’d be making a whole lot less if ticket prices were slashed.
The players create the product being sold in an industry with revenues in the billions. Why on earth should they not get as much as they can, particularly when the owners still make money hand over fist?
The only thing of value that any of us has is our labor. If I had a marketable elite skill, I certainly wouldn’t settle for less than I can demand. Disparaging hard-working millionaires in the defense of silver-spoon billionaires is a bootlicker move.
And the salaries have squat to do with relocations. Fisher isn’t going to suddenly bust open the piggy bank when he gets to Vegas. He’s a cheap piece of shit, cares nothing for the fans, and probably very little for the game itself.
Dingers!
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