In the midst of a five game losing streak and currently sitting at 2-8, the Sacramento Kings’ problems stretch much deeper than their record. A season that was filled with such hope and promise a month ago, the inevitable “turn the corner” year, if you will – fell apart quicker than the arena deal struck in Orlando this past February.
April 11, 2011; Sacramento, CA, USA; Fans hold up signs during the Sacramento Kings vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder game in the fourth quarter at the Power Balance Pavilion. The Thunder defeated the Kings 120-112. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-US PRESSWIRE
Gone are the exuberant wishes of a fruitful season as they’ve now been replaced with sour irritation. The Sacramento Kings’ “stars” have been anything but. The
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overexuberant Maloofs extended their coach without reason and the overly patient Geoff Petrie continues to frustrate fans with his nonchalant moves – the few moves that there are.
Entering what will be a seventh straight season of missing the playoffs and with only one season of improvement in wins since 2001, the Kings are on the decade plus plan of rebuilding, which simply is inexcusable in this current NBA age.
Refusing to rebuild when the situation called for it, the Maloofs pressed on, forcing a poor re-tooling which left the Kings in mediocrity for a handful of years. Now, the overly late rebuilding project looks like a failure as the Kings’ young big names lack their needed youthful progression (a seemingly recurring theme the past five/six years) and the talent they’ve been surrounded with is essentially bottom barrel.
The problems aren’t any lone persons, as I’ve said before. Ironic as it is, the losing has been a team effort – the only thing this franchise has been able to do as a cohesive unit in years.
So here we sit – the stitches unraveled yet again, a story we’ve read far too often the last five years. Make no mistake, this isn’t simply a fan-wide frustration of losing off of poor roster decisions – it’s far greater than that. This is years worth of pain endured from the Kings ownership yo-yoing the franchise in a handful of different ways, not only in terms of relocation but financials and forcing their hands into the cookie jar, where they didn’t belong.
All we’ve done is support this franchise, from their darkest days to the sunniest. We didn’t ask for much – just a good product on the floor that we could be proud of. We weren’t asking for a 50 win team – hell – we weren’t even asking for a 40 win team this season. Just a team that would compete, grow and make us proud. Yet, with an eighth of the season already over, the Kings look like they’ve taken five step backwards and their once promising roster is all but on the verge of a complete re-haul, something we’ve spent more than enough time already going through.
It doesn’t take rocket science to re-build a roster. Teams can often turn themselves around in a handful of seasons and the Kings have absolutely no excuse for not doing so. They’ve had plenty of high draft picks and had luck fall their way more than once in those years, yet, no dice.
The same old story has grown old. We’re tired of it. That doesn’t mean we don’t bleed purple, but simply, we deserve better.