The Kings sit at 10-14, and have won 4 of their last 7 games since Alvin Gentry took over for the fired Luke Walton. Games are happening as I write this, so standings could shift, but right now the Kings are 11th in the West, one game back of the 10th seed. They’re well within striking distance of the play-in berth that the franchise so desperately craves and hopes to pass off as a sign of growth. It feels not just possible, but likely that the Kings could make the play-in the year as the West is as weak as it’s been in years.
And yet, despite all of this, I struggle to care.
I display my apathy in an unconventional way. I still watch at least part of every game. I still actively work on this site. I argue with fellow Kings fans in comments and on twitter. I watch everything this team does. But I do it out of obligation not to the team but to this site and this community.
If it wasn’t for this site and all of you, I can’t imagine that I’d still be paying attention to this team.
I still want this team to succeed. God do I want them to finally succeed. I’m just tired of being let down. I watch the games, even the wins, waiting for the collapse to come. I still enjoy the good plays. I still react to the mistakes. But at the end of the game I no longer care. A win doesn’t boost my spirits for the next day or two. A loss doesn’t bring me down.
I bought in at the start of the season. I really did. The team felt different. The depth felt real. I thought that maybe, despite keeping a coach I thought they should have replaced this summer and despite minimal roster changes to what I thought was a flawed roster, I thought that maybe I was wrong and this year was different.
I am forever Charlie Brown lining up to kick the football.
But a different thing happened when the Kings reverted back to the Kangz this season. Normally I’d get mad. Normally I’d rant and rave and demand changes. But this year I just felt tired. I realized I was no longer mad. I was just accepting that the Kings were once again a joke and that nothing was going to change.
When the Kings fired Walton I wasn’t excited. I was relieved I no longer had to endure Walton coaching my team, but I just felt sad and annoyed that the Kings didn’t make the obvious change over the summer. I didn’t even bother writing about it, because there was nothing left to be said. We’d written about it all before.
And that’s the problem. We’ve been through all of this so many times already that’s it hard to care when you’re seeing the same old scene play out once again. And so I find myself caring less and less.
Based on the attendance at home games, it doesn’t seem like I’m alone.
This feeling, apathy instead of anger, is what the Kings should truly fear. I have a website to help run and a community I love to talk basketball with. I’m as die-hard as they come and I’m just going through the motions right now. I’m writing this now, during a multi-day break from games, because I feel like we should have something up on the site but I don’t have it in me to write “what if Bagley has figured it out” yet again. So instead of forcing a haphazard analysis I’m just going to write what I actually feel about this team.
I feel tired.
I’m tired of caring about a team that can’t clear the lowest thresholds of success. I’m tired of a team that constantly talks about needing to be better but never walks the walk. I’m tired of hearing about the moves that the team almost made.
I have a 49ers t-shirt that dates back to the Mike Singletary Head Coach era. He was a bad coach but a great quote machine. The shirt is a Singletary-ism. “Don’t tell me, show me”. Stop telling me you’ll be better. Just be better. Stop telling me you care about success, just go be successful. Kings fans have such a low standard of success and this franchise has failed us for 15 years, and as I write this there’s no real reason to think it won’t be 16 seasons.
So, to the Sacramento Kings, I beg you to give me a reason to believe again.
Now when I say “I no longer care”, there is nothing behind it. I no longer care about the reasons why I no longer care.
At this point I’m just rooting for the clown show to continue. Fuck it, life is short, they deserve it.
I stopped getting mad about the Kangz after I finished mourning the loss of Malone. At that point, it was no longer worth the emotional investment. Sure, I still feel disappointment with each subsequent exercise in dumbfuckery that the organization engages in, but I’m no longer mad. Now it’s just more of a “heh heh, of course they did that”.
It’ll probably take at two playoff (not a chintzy 9 or 10 play-in spot, but actual playoff series as a 1-8 seed) appearances in a row before I start truly getting excited and optimistic about the team/games again.
I have Richaun Holmes in fantasy so I care a whole lot!
Fun note:
The kings haven’t had a winning streak more than 5 games since the last time we were in the playoffs. Watching teams consistently ripping off long winning streaks like the Suns (remember when they were picking one pick ahead of us?) and us do… you know, a couple fun wins I guess against the clippers? Yeah. Call me when we’re seeded in the playoffs after the first month of the season.
I thought there was a 7 have won streak last year. Have I really been so detached that I’ve started making up wins?
No, we had two “won 7 of their last 8” stints. That could be what you’re remembering.
Both directly preceded the two 9 game losing streaks.
God what a joke this team is.
This is where I’ve been for a good 4-5 years now, sadly. Just apathetic towards this franchise because it’s been the same old story for 15 years now so getting upset over things is useless. We’ve seen it all before and they keep repeating the same mistakes so why bother giving a shit anymore. Nothing changes, the team continues to be one of the bigger laughing stocks in american sports….they’re easily one of the bottom 3-5 franchises in all 4 major american sports for much of this century. My reaction to the Walton firing was laughter because it was obvious this was gonna be the logical conclusion when they foolishly decided to NOT fire him back in the offseason. Business as usual in Sacramento
I only watch the games because I like some of the players and feel bad for them that they are on this team. I never pay attention to the standings since they’ve never mattered for this team in so, so long. At this point I need to see some sustained level of good basketball before I actually invest again in them as a serious sports franchise
The Kings sucked in the 80’s and 90’s but had quite a long sellout streak at Arco. Then they were good and fun during the few glory years, with the glory peaking in the 2002 WCF. Still sold out for a few years after that, into the Artest era. Now they have sucked for a long time and the city is not as accepting as they were 25-30 years ago. Also the pandemic has soured people on going out, driving down ticket sales. To paraphrase Singletary again, “don’t talk about it, be about it.” I continue to follow them out of local pride and because I am fond of the knuckleheads (self included) who argue on this site, even though I have never met you in person. Looking forward to a TKH night at G1C someday.
A TKH night would make me buy tickets for sure.
Shared misery is less miserable.
This organization is to basketball what WWE is to wrestling – not really a sports franchise, good only for drama. The organization is led by a dismissive little chap who has no idea how to run a sports team but is sensitive to revenue and also wants to be seen as innovative. We as fans, having been turned apathetic by the annual shitfest that the organization treats us to, have to take matters into our own hands. Deprive the dismissive little chap of as much revenue as possible and let him know in as many ways as possible (forum posts, radio calls, billboards, whatever…) that he’s a fucknugget imbecile. Nothing will change until the dismissive little chap is jolted by the fans.
Maybe we are more at Nacho Libre’s competition level at this point.
Apathetic to a pathetic franchise? Seems about right.
Wish I could disconnect as easily.
I still get the blues when the Kings lose.
It’s especially bad in the depths of winter.
Infinite sadness….
When you wish upon a star…..the Kings still won’t make the playoffs.
The Kings Herald and the community here is like the only reason I’ve been paying attention to the Kings the last few years.
This is how the entire NBA is now…no fumdamentals. No passion. No loyalty. No intrigue. Its just these guys running up and down jacking up 3s. While theyre supernally talents. The lack of strategy. The lack of love fir the game. The lack of bird vs magic. Knicks vs heat. Sort of passion is what makes the game today so bleh. There ks more talent tham ever, but no chmeistry, comeraderie or loyalty to create the rivalries. Heck there arent even kibgs vs lakers anymore. The nba game is dead.
This is partly true.
Some teams run very nice plays, with constant player and ball movement.
Others show very solid defensive schemes and execution.
And lo and behold, those are often the better teams in the league.
I disagree the nba game is dead, but agree that the nba game of the eras you’re reminiscing about are gone. Players make more money than they ever have in the past (though still a small fraction of owners’ profits), so this certainly has played into the frequency of player movement, “lack of loyalty”, signing with teams that make the most financial sense. Even the max contract incentives to keep players with their respective drafting teams often can’t prevent those players from playing for bigger market teams with the hope of greater exposure and other amenities.
This is all to say that the rivalries we knew in the older days are generally gone, BUT – I think there are still many players with a great competitive passion who want to win, care about the game, etc.
I don’t know if your perceived lack of passion for the game today stems from this new paradigm of player choice and freedom, but I would say that the backlash players get for signing where they want to instead of sticking with one team should not be criticized anymore than the average person choosing the best job for themselves. The owners/employers of businesses have always hired whoever made them the most money, after all. If anything, it’s just the nature of the nba market evolving
I don’t know how long it’s been since the wins and losses haven’t bothered me. It’s been awhile, at least 15 years, and probably longer than that realistically.
But I stopped being frustrated by this franchise when I knew this ownership group couldn’t move on from DeMarcus Cousins in 2013. It was an obvious mistake then, it’s an obvious mistake now. And if they hadn’t fired Malone the way they did, it might not have mattered in terms of ending the playoff drought.
One of the best decisions I ever made was quit watching this team in 2016 when it became clear they weren’t going to move on from Cousins easily (and the 205 million reasons was probably the only reason they traded him realistically) or ever until something really forced their hand.
It was obvious from day one that the ownership really didn’t get it, and I was hoping (but never optimistic) that at some point they would get it. The way they fired Luke Walton is a perfect example. If you weren’t confident in the guy, why did you keep him all summer? And why did your GM say things (in trying to maintain continuity I suspect) like Walton would be the HC of your next playoff team? And then 17 games in you let him go? That’s not an indictment of Walton as a HC IMO. Is he as bad as many think? I suspect not. Was he worth keeping if you didn’t believe in him? No. They were being cheap but realized if they didn’t make any move it would probably tank the entire season because the players stopped responding to Walton in any way. Who is they? That’s the question. I’m not really sure anybody really knows who fired Walton or why Walton was kept.
Shouldn’t we know that? It was clear why Neil Olshey got fired, for instance.
At the end of it all, I enjoy the games because I think the talent on this team is fun to watch when they play well. But I’m not as interested as I once was because…..there’s no fun in trying to think about something that won’t matter. There’s no point in dreaming up a trade idea that has no chance at happening. So unless the topic interests me, I don’t waste my time on it. When I don’t want to talk about this team, I don’t. Nobody’s paying me to comment here.
Quite honestly, it’s amazing there are still so many fans (to whatever degree they are fans) of this team with how they are run. Simply put, this organization doesn’t deserve the fanbase.
What are we going to post when it gets to 85 years??
If I’m around in another seventy years, I’ll probably do a nationwide tour of grave sites where I can urinate.
This team never pulls the trigger. It waits until after the horse has been beaten to death to pull moves. That’s what frustrates me about this organization – it never swings for the fences. Cousins should have been traded way before Malone was fired. Luka would have been a grand slam but they were content in swinging for first base. Walton should have been fired like a year ago, but they were content in seeing what he could do this season. Kings could have offered anyone to trade for Michael Porter Jr when he was drafted at 14 but did nothing. Pete D’Alessandro was a total moron in not paying for Isaiah and we stuck with him a year after that blunder. Vlade and his crony staff also stuck around until the shit hit the fan with Luka. This team now has the opportunity to make a major trade for an All-Star/DPOY candidate and the organization comes out saying they won’t make any major trades. This organization is content in literally doing nothing and making no major moves, content in searching the bottom of the barrel in hopes of finding a diamond – and then throwing that diamond away because it would rather have a board/nail to patch up this sinking ship.
In all fairness, I think we’re seeing they did the right thing in passing on Porter Jr.
He makes Bagley look like Cal Ripken Jr.
You know upon reflection Guru this is likely when my needle began to point towards “FO Incompetence” for good. As fans we’re all guilty of saying “I knew it then” but my fucking god we knew it then. What a dumbass decision it was to keep building around a slow C while the league evolved at light speed. I guess in my mind it’s been downhill ever since in terms of management.
I naively held out hope until the Doncic draft because I kept telling myself that if they just got a high enough pick in the right draft, everything could turn around. When they drafted Bagley I finally realized the game was rigged. That no matter what happens, they don’t have any chance of turning this around as things are currently constituted.
I think this sums it for me pretty well:
Horrible ownership saps your ability to really care about any of the stuff that could possibly improve your team because it just doesn’t matter anymore. You can fire GM’s and coaches and trade players or draft intriguing young guys but you can’t get rid of the owner. And I believe that it just so happens that while Vivek might not be a worse guy than Sarver or Dolan, he can absolutely be worse for the product on the floor. And I think he is.
Nate – I first signed up as a member of the old site because of your comments, indecipherable, long, (3-4 pages printed out) which I’d have to read with a ruler because you used no paragraphs, but you had incredible passion and knowledge of the team and the game. I lost my attachment for the team when Joe Maloof first announced that the family was in negotiations to move the franchise.
What I realized was that the team was crap and every decision was a bad decision regardless of the FO or ownership. I think I recall telling you at the time of the ownership change was a real estate play, not a basketball one.
It seems to me that vivek has made a great profit from buying the team but I wonder how much is left to squeeze out of the real estate lemon. He has been owner for more than enough time to maximize his ROI. What I don’t understand is why he is not looking to sell his % because he is clearly not up to running and managing a basketball franchise. How much fun can it be to own the Kings and receive nothing but negative press, condemnation and be made a joke by the national press? When was the last time Drake sat next to him in the court side seats while the little chap shakked on? He is the anti Joe Lacob, a fool in way over his head and given his lack of height the water doesn’t need to be all that deep.
I had to really examine my continued support of this team when vivek fired Malone. I said at the time that IMO he had set the franchise back 5 years which, at that time was not well received at the old site. In retrospect I wish I had made a bolder statement, it’s looking like that decision has set the team back more like 10 years.
I’m at another inflection point as I write this. One of my great pleasures in the last 5 years has been texting with my son in Portland as we would watch the games together texting madly. I raised my son to be a King’s fan. We no longer text back and forth during King’s games because at 27, he no longer has time for this shit. My loss.
I will no longer get excited to see the Kangz go on a 9 game winning streak only to revert to a G league team after the magic dust has settled. I want to see sustained real progress and until the time I see that I won’t believe a fucking word that comes from the franchise.
Greg I can only emphasize with you. Early on I adopted your tag line (I know nothing) and it has proven to be a great philosophy for being a fan of this abomination of a team who seemingly has not begun to plumb the depths of their incompetence. It begins and ends with vivek and nothing will change until he abdicates his management position.
What I can tell you Greg is that when I was really sick and housebound 2008-2012 I came back to the old site many times daily and this community was always there and vibrant
and I have nothing but admiration for what you and Akis have done to continue this amazing community at TKH. Thank you!
If any article ever deserved zero comments, it’s this one.
If (when?) the Kings lose to Orlando, your article is quite appropriate. But after winning two games? I thought you said you were Charlie Brown, Greg.
Anyway, well written. Except for one thing…
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A 10 SEED!!!
By the way, I am the Charlie Brown of all Charlie browns. This could be the start of a turn around. As much as it has hurt in the last decade or so, I love this team and am currently and will always be in. Thankful Vlade and Luke are out. Go Kings!
This is a great community.
The team continues to be empty calories.
Nice arena, though. 6th for G1C. I wonder if/when it will ever host NBA playoff basketball?
I just filled out a questionnaire that was emailed to me after attending the Kangz Cippers game. The first question was on a 1-10 scale how likely are you to recommend a king game to a friends? I put 1, because the on court product has been terrible for 15 years. The remaining multiple pages of questions were all about the stadium – no joke. lol
G-1-wonders-what-the-arena-would-be-like-if-a-viable-NBA-team-played-there-C.
This is an honest question that I’ve asked before but… If Vivek continues to own the team, will the team every make the playoffs in G1C? It might have seemed like an absurd question a few years ago but now? I don’t think it’s all that outlandish. I think we are truly witnessing what might go down as the most incompetent franchise in SPORTS history. What if the playoff drought stretches 20 years? 25 years? 30 years? If Vivek owns the team I think it’s not only possible, but maybe even likely. I know the law of averages says that it just can’t continue but the chances of a team not making the playoffs for 15 consecutive years in a sport where over half the teams make it every year are already so slim, that we’re way past the point where the probability truly matters. So, what’s happening is only really possibly if outside forces have intervened to create a situation where the Kings aren’t really competing in the same sport as everyone else. And that’s where we are at the moment.
Maybe letting thr magoofs move the team and let the franchise be competitivr would have been better than surrendering thr team to Vivek and watching the franchise squamder into an abyss if eternity? Food for thought.
I can’t help but to fan, I just don’t expect them to ever win.
It’s the Kangz Kurse – latest curse is Vivek Ruindiva, cursed 1 decade 2013-2023. 3 more years of low expectations from me, and by 2024 hopefully we have made good trades/picks to see a good and consistent product. Hang in there my friends!
Very recognizable, Greg. Good stuff. I hope your mother read it.
I used to get angry a lot about this franchise.
I even was active with the #Here WeBillboard campaign.
But i don’t care that much anymore. Try to muster a bit of happiness when there’s a good win. Manage to temper my disappointment at a bad game/move. Staying away from most passionate discussions about whatever.
Has Marvin turned a corner or is he running in circles? Eh.
Has Monte done a good job? Meh
Is Fox a franchise player? Nah.
Whatever.
Like others said, I have TKH and it requires to talk about the Kings. Cool. If I can talk politics or yoghurt pies, I can do that as well.
Heck, I’d be happy to talk about marbles.
How do you kill them?
We’ll all care again when they decide to move again
I don’t know if I will. Maybe that is the “out” needed for me. They stayed last time with some magic from the NBA Executive Office and David Stern only to screw it up even more. At least when the Kings sucked in the early days the city was proud to have a team to root for as they grew the franchise. I counted how many seasons the Kings won more than 30 games. 17, not including the strike/lockout season in the late 90’s. That pathetic, and the fans are realizing how bad things are. Sure some are still in the “at least we have a team” mood, but even they are being driven toward apathy.
I’m not all that sure about this, at least speaking for myself. I actually find myself wondering why I was so concerned the last time, now that we’re seeing what the outcome was from them staying.
Sometimes I want the Kings to stay poorly ran because it is now a running joke to talk about so negatively about the team. I would not know how to discuss a winning/good Kings team. People often say “you like the Kings? Man, they really suck.” I know they are looking for me to defend the team as a fan, but I just casually agree with them and go deeper in as to why I think they have sucked for all but 8 years of existence in Sacramento. It just feels more comfortable to discuss how crappy they are.
Slow improvement at glacial pace is happening ..
I don’t think I’d know how to act if they were a good team. It’s been so long.
Lately for me, this team is like watching a car crash, full of deviants, in slow motion. I can’t take my eyes off of it, but also really don’t care about the outcome. If a few don’t walk away from the crash, so be it. Fire them, trade them, cut them…who cares. Until someone learns how to drive this thing the results will be the same at every intersection of the season.
Have been following this franchise as a young kid in Ohio since the mid 1960’s. Lots of bad players, bad coaches, bad owners, bad trades, bad drafts and bad results during that time. Often said in jest that I may never live long enough to see a championship. At 67 now, it is a bit disheartening when the cold reality hits that it most likely won’t happen despite all the time invested.
I am 39 and I don’t think it will happen in my lifetime either. Sad, really.
The Titanic gif we often use is not far off!
Jack got off the boat and no longer suffered…
85 ’til Infinity
Who in the organization intimated that they had a “desperate craving” to make the play-in? It’s true that they would likely spin it as a gigantic accomplishment, but as a goal? To have the opportunity to be unceremoniously dumped out of the tournament in forty-eight minutes?
We might be able to beat some of those other Play-in teams. We’d definitely get crushed in the real playoffs.
Yeah, it’s clawing at the opportunity to get lucky. Even if they lucked into getting th 8th seed via the play-in, they’d get crushed by the Dubs or Suns. Can you imagine what kind of gut punch it would be to get swept by the Dubs in the first round only to have more of their fans in Golden One than Kings fans? I want to make the playoffs but I’ll pass on that kind of opportunity.
No shame rooting for another NorCal team in the interim. Better the dubs winning it all than the Lakers/Clippers/Nets
The organization is a loose term. Not really any uniform plan or strategy. A bunch of people getting paid and not doing anything in a collective effort.
the way Gentry is going deeper into the bench makes it more interesting to tune in, I think. (Although, ideally I’d prefer if the players were consistent enough to keep the roles given to them). Question: would you have less apathy if it were a different brand of basketball, and if so what type of brand?
I’d care more if they had a winning brand of basketball. So the real answer to your question from me is “no.” Pace and space, 7 seconds or less, grit n’ shit, 90’s pound it inside, midrange mastery – whatever, just win. Malone was running an ugly style when he won for a brief stint in year 2. I was happy and didn’t give two shits for the style he chose. Just win.
I still care way more than I should, but am fully aware that this is reality until Vivek goes.
On a positive note, Alvin Gentry has the best winning percentage of any coach other than Rick Adelman in the Sacramento era. Maybe there is hope after all!
This team is trash with a little air freshener sprayed on it occasionally. Unfortunately the stench of the trash is overwhelming the air freshener after a decade or so.
I have a feeling the Kings will beat the Magic and a Hornets team missing 5 players, including their entire backcourt. Gentry may look like a savant by Fri.
With that being said, I just don’t think the team has enough top end talent. Winning by committee, or “It takes a village will only take you so far.”
The Kings Front office has to know they are so far far away from ever competing with the Jazz, Suns, or Dubs. Really no chance at all. If the Play in or low playoff seed is the goal, it’s certainly achievable. Considering the current state of the Western Conference. But, that has to be the ceiling with this current lineup.
Clips have no Kawhi, Denver is missing 2 starters, Dallas is barely kept afloat by Doncic, Blazers are either in imminent rebuild or retool, Memphis is just Amazing, winning without Jah, Lakers are old and have zero shot at winning a championship. Minny is a nice story if they can stay healthy. Spurs are well coached, but not loaded with top end talent, other than Murray. Houston is starting to surprise with all their young potential, and OKC is in year 2 of the rebuild, and Pels are wait and see mode with Zion coming back next week.
Kings can certainly benefit from this crazy year for the Western Conference. Is it sustainable and building block for future improvement from this team? I don’t think so.
I see a scenario where the Kings make the playin/playoff this year. Gentry is extended. Next year they decline because Gentry is not a long term solution. He’s only proven to be a decent stop gap? Interim coach for his entire career. That won’t change in Year 18 of his head coaching carousel.
A complete tear down would be a dream come true. That would mean The Kings finally did something right for once. But, I suspect with almost certainty that will not happen. The team will be mentioned with some big names around the trade deadline. But, Ultimately, the team will make 1-2 tweaks. The FO will continue to believe the Kings roster is just 1-2 tweaks away from being a true contender.
Great article. Captures exactly how I feel right now. But its fleeting. If they beat Orlando, maybe pull out a game or two on the next road trip, I’ll be right back to checking standings and hoping. The way I get by is just realizing that the team is not very good. They try hard, but they are simply not talented enough. If they happen to win, it’s a bonus!
How to feel better about the team and restore the faith.
I don’t care anymore either. Just check out the site and do my predictions on the site. Really stopped watching the game because they always fail at the end. They will be in the hunt for play in until after the trade deadline. If they make the play in, Kanzs will show up and get blasted out of the gym.
Winless for Wembanyama. #NBADRAFT2023
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