Hear ye, hear ye: the Sacramento Kings will be donning their powder blue uniforms for one more time before deboarding the Sleep Train at the end of the 2015-16 season. Well, they’ll be suiting up in their powder blues for 10 games, actually, including their final regular season home game at their residence of 30 years.
Since its days as ARCO Arena — and its brief period as the Power Balance Pavilion, not to mention the last three years as Sleep Train Arena — the Kings’ Sacramento palace has been the setting for hope, triumph, disappointment and disillusionment. It’s seen All-Stars and Hall of Famers, but its also been a pit stop for those who’ve seen greater glories before or since their respective Sacramento interludes.
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It gave Bill Russell and Dick Motta wholly unnecessary blights; it was where the jaws of death clamped down on Otis Thorpe‘s career (and his knees); despite his successes in Sacramento, Peja Stojakovic would have to travel to Dallas to collect his sole championship ring; it was where 1,131-win George Karl would…
Never mind, let’s not jump the gun.
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To commemorate the 30 years the Kings have spent in their abode, they will be paying homage to the 1985-86 relocation squad who made it to the 1986 NBA Playoffs. Those were heady days, when the former Kansas City Kings came to town for games a small city would get very excited about. Those were the days when a loaf of bread only cost $1.02, and you could get the sixth seed in the West with a .451 winning percentage.
Close your eyes and picture it now, kids. See, over there? That skinny kid with all that hair? That’s Mike Woodson. He’s that guy who took the Knicks to the semifinals. And the little guard? That’s Larry Drew! I know, the guy who coached that really rough Bucks season. And that? It’s… Joe Kleine; I don’t want to talk about it.
Before they begin the Vivek Ranadive era properly at the Golden 1 Center in 2016, the Kings will have one chance to end things on an optimistic note.
Their 13th anniversary year hasn’t gone according to plan by any means, and the Kings of this upcoming year are in the expected trim of many previous Sacramento groups: a respected head coach looking to make headway and once again prove himself, a mold-breaking center in need of a special relationship with a point guard, a European sharpshooter, stars and notables coming in for a stint. This middling situation always leaves a small market like Sacramento at a fork in the road.
The mental weight of ending the Sleep Train era on a positive note is something which may not be enough to sustain the lineup hastily assembled by Ranadive this summer. Were this August of 1985, a roster containing a past-his-prime Rajon Rondo, a bejeweled Marco Belinelli, and a healthy Darren Collison would look more promising.
Even if the Dallas Mavericks are due for a momentary dip, and if the Blazers are rebooting for the next half decade, the likelihood of this more veteran assembly clawing over the Pelicans, Thunder, or maybe even the Suns would appear small.
For a small market team with a set culture and stable organization (e.g., San Antonio), the march of progress can feel like a jog. For a team whose history has been marketed by high coefficients of friction, things can take longer. Those baby blues may bring back happy memories, but they may bring up a question in the minds of more reflective Kings fans: what has really been accomplished in the last 30 years?
The Kings are not the only team to miss out on an NBA Finals, or throw its coaches in a blender, or collect ample ping-pong balls most every year, but expansion teams like the Grizzlies, Hornets, Magic, and Heat have all had periodic tidal waves of progress, if not the ultimate in achievement and glory.
So if the Kings are bringing back old sights for sore eyes this season, here are some suggestions.
- Let’s give Mike Woodson a head coaching job again. The man is perhaps not the coach the Kings deserve, nor is he the coach they need right now, but he wears his disappointments and frustrations openly. If we’re bringing anything back from 1985-86, it should be Woodson (and heck, his Atlanta buddy Larry Drew can be his assistant again). George Karl can serve as Woodson’s public relations contact, because heaven forbid he should lose the opportunity to stir things up even if he’s not on the bench.
- Bring back the Power Balance naming rights. No, this is not to revive the hilarious bracelet brand’s market standing. Simply, the name itself has never been more appropriate given the organization’s flummoxing turnover and struggles for position.
- Bring back both Jimmer and Sauce. Nothing adds pizzazz to a team like over-hyped Caucasion sensations, and Jimmer Fredette and Nik Stauskas share a special wing of the Kings’ palace in that regard.
In all seriousness, though the playoffs may be a foolhardy prediction for the 2015-16 Kings, one assumes that they are all ready to make a pivot in their own individual careers, and the franchise’s fortunes.
Next: Sacramento Kings: Grading The Offseason
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