As my wife was reading the Sacramento paper this morning, she noticed the full-page article on the top 10 moments in Arco Arena’s 24-year history.
She agrees with me that the Arco should be replaced as fast the wrecking ball can hit it. But as the “Here We Stay” effort tries to sell out the joint Monday night, the article’s passages on the 2002 Kings got her worked up again.
“I’m really angry at the Maloofs. Why haven’t they signed any big-name free agents?” she said. “If they would win, then people would go to the games.”
And that’s when my wife fell into the same trap that many Kings fans do. She forgot where she lived.
Sacramento is not a destination on the NBA map. Most players want to play in the sunshine of Los Angeles or Phoenix or Miami. They want to play in the spotlight of Boston or New York.
Ninety-nine percent of NBA players do not start their careers thinking they want to play in Charlotte or Memphis or Milwaukee. The reason the Cleveland Cavaliers were so good last decade was because they won the lottery to draft LeBron James. The free agents the Cavs did sign were role players behind James.
That’s where the Kings come in. Hoping to win the lottery for a big-name player or build through the draft has been their game plan recently. Big-name free agents are not going to come to Sacramento willingly. Even the Golden State Warriors are going to have an easier time signing free agents because they play in the more alluring Bay Area.
“What about Vlade Divac?” she said. “He was a free agent.”
And Vlade signed in 1998 to resurrect his career after the Lakers had dealt him to the Charlotte Hornets for the rights to draft Kobe Bryant. After two years in Charlotte, he wanted to come back West to a winning team, and Sacramento looked promising because the Kings had traded for Chris Webber and drafted Jason Williams.
Since the 2002 conference finals, though, the Kings have failed to sign any significant free agents. The biggest free agent acquired was Brad Miller, who was a sign-and-trade deal with the Indiana Pacers one year later. He was a backup when he was acquired and never blossomed into the center he could have been.
No, a broken-down Shareef Abdur Raheem and a streaky John Salmons do not count as major free-agent signings, either.
You can blame the Maloofs for a lot of things – like not replacing Geoff Petrie for not rebuilding the Kings fast enough – but don’t blame them for owning a team in a small market that has inherent problems. Creating a winner in cities like this come through shrewd trades and smart drafting, like what Petrie did in the late 1990s. This will be an issue just to keep Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins in a few years.
If the Kings remain in Sacramento, then the one hope their fans have lies in the new collective bargaining agreement. All indications are that the owners will only have a CBA with a hard salary cap, not one that has exceptions in every paragraph.
Such a CBA would mean the Miamis of the NBA wouldn’t be able to afford three superstars. That would make Sacramento – and the Kings’ salary-cap room – look very attractive to star free agents.
Copyright 2011/Bill Bradley
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