I’ve thought about this every single day since the end of the regular season. I mean it. On the commute home from work, randomly on a ferry headed to Alcatraz, cooking lunch for my fiancé on a weekend day in August, the impact and responsibility of last season’s groundswell of support has come to me every single day, and every single day it’s ended with the same nerve inducing question: “How are we going to follow it up?”
Last season’s frustration and anger has long since subsided – so there was a ton of consideration given to shutting it down. We made our grievances known, we got incredible press for what started off as a somewhat silly complaint and premise and in just 11 weeks wound up raising $12,506.34 for local Sacramento charities – an entirely unsilly number with an incredible impact on the nearly 50 causes we as a group chose to impact. We could finish on top, retire as champions knowing our job here was done.
But the more I thought about it, the longer summer dragged on, the more I gave myself time, I realized, our job here isn’t done.
Each of the causes we individually and collectively impacted last season still remain, still need assistance. Going further, there are still so many other causes we can bring awareness and relief to given a full season of support.
So, I’d like to formally announce:
Operation:MCNAIR – Season 2.
Now, practically? The previously stated goal of $10 a game is high for anyone staring down the barrel of an entire 82 game season. It is truly a lot of cheddar. Though the Sacramento Kings have improved on and off the court, the fact remains: we’re realistically still looking at 40-50 losses this season and as such, I want to de-emphasize the $10 per donation a bit. $10 is a goal sure, but if you can only give $3 or $5, I’d still happily record it and be thankful for it. We’ll try to hit a few of these charities multiple times so my hope is we can get you close to $10 total by the end of the season if it’s a bit less.
Another change I’d like to make is to the spirit of our push. Last season, this started off as a way to air grievances, to push for a change the team needed. I feel like Monte McNair and Company have accomplished that goal and while we have yet to see the fruits of those labors, I want to continue the growth from last season’s drive.
While I’ll still donate now after losses, I donate now as a means of supporting our community and the team alike. Sacramento, regardless of how many wins they get this season, will go undefeated. Like last year, either we win on the court or we win off of it. It will continue to be “Money for Charities & Nonprofits As Incompetence Restitution” because, well, lets face it, every loss can be chalked up to incompetence somewhere, but I’d like to save any and all of my vitriol for where it’s useful, and drive this season’s donations purely on hope, for as long as I can.
I started this project last season without any hopes of anyone coming along for the ride with me – I wanted to do my part, make myself feel a bit better about a terrible season and if a few of you came along, I’d count it as a happy bonus. I renew that again today. If you can’t, if you won’t, if you no longer see the point… I thank you for your past support and consideration. If you decide to come along on this amended yet still hopeful journey, I can promise you only one thing:
Someone, something, some place in this world will be better because you did.
Welcome to Season 2 – let’s write some checks our team can’t cash.
LET’S FUCKING GO, WILL!!!
Glad to have you around for Season 2, Jon!
One of my absolute favorite parts of last season was donating after the losses and putting “Go Kings!” or “Operation M.C.N.A.I.R. Underway” in the comments of the donations and getting confused emails from charity organizers (bless them!) basically saying “Thank you! but WTF is happening?” lol
I definitely had a few of those myself. Truly thankful, wonderful emails that tried to dance around the question of “what the hell is all of this??”.
Here’s to confusing the heck out of some more wonderful orgs this year!
Will, thanks again for shepherding your idea into existence, and really making something of it. Twelve grand is a lot of money! I’m not surprised that so many people have contributed, after all, the fanbase knows all about charity cases.
So let’s make this year a bigger success. I know a lot of people are struggling, because shit is hard out there, but if you can spare it, all of it helps, and it builds to something great.
Go Kings fans!
Fuck yeah man, I was planning to do something individually, probably $5 a loss, figuring MCNAIR wouldn’t happen again, that we couldn’t catch lightning in a bottle twice.
But Operation MCNAIR was literally my favorite thing about last season, and I’m so proud of you, of myself, and of Us for doing it. I’m all in again for this year. This franchise will still probably disappoint us, but we as fans won’t.
In the spirit of knowing deeply that some folks (and organizations) have a tougher row to hoe than others, let’s do this.
OT: Thoughts on Peaches’ new YouTube show with Jerry?
I like him a lot more now that he’s not with the Kings and sounds more authentic and less filtered. He clearly still cares about the city and the team and it’s unfortunate how he was cancelled in an extremely sensitive time in America. So far no listeners have been called idiots yet so maybe some growth?
I don’t think I could do it. They can talk hoops, but I don’t think I’d be able to listen to Peaches outside of a live-game context.
Plus, Demarcus Cousins threw the biggest, most obvious hook in history out into the waters, Napes took all of the bait, and cut his own throat. I’m still kind of laughing at how eagerly he threw himself into the most-obvious of traps.
He is who he is, and I’ve enjoyed not having him around.
Completely understandable. I never actually listened to him on the radio before and YouTube is much more accessible on demand. I just like listening to Jerry wherever possible, but the two of them were iconic for so many years.
I like it a lot but the best podcast is Jerry with Whitey Gleason and Phantom on You Tube . Named -Old Fashioned Three . 45 minutes of total fun .
Will check it out thanks
Don’t forget to look into company matching if you work for a company that matches charitable contributions! Have your employer double that $5 or $10!!
Company match…now that’s funny. I am more interested in my company giving me more than the 3% raise that I got last January, and that was after a 0% raise the year before due to Covid.
Go Kings! Maybe this year with a decent raise, I can pay for league pass after Xmas.
I rarely write in the comments, though I’m an avid reader of TKH (and that other site before this), but I just want to publicly thank Will for the organizing he does for this. Just based on the emails he responded to from me (since I don’t have social media and couldn’t make his talling easy by tagging him or Operation MCNAIR that way), I can only imagine the time and effort he put into making this happen.
As others have said, this was far and way my favorite part of last year -and really, it is probably my favorite (and IMHO also the best) part of all of our (playoff missing) record breaking years. It was a great way to show a great side of our very fair city; really, everyone who contributed (even in spirit) showed (at least one reason) why Sacramento is a good city.
So, for all to see: Thank you, Will Griffith.
I look forward to doing what I can to contribute again this year.
Sincerely,
Zach Manzanetti
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