During the NBA hiatus, there are no new Sacramento Kings games to watch. So, instead, let’s explore YouTube and watch these five classic Kings victories!
Recently, NBC Sports California announced plans for a Classic Kings Games scheduling block, a marvelous idea on paper to fill time and engage fans during a time when it is unclear when the Sacramento Kings will ever play again. However, once the channel announced its lineup through April, let’s just say this writer was underwhelmed.
Of the fifteen games scheduled to be re-run, not one is older than November of 2017. Four of them are from this season. Don’t get me wrong, most are very good games! The game against Miami in January of 2018 that put De’Aaron Fox on the map, for instance. The recent comeback against Minnesota was historic and loopy.
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However, I have to scoff at the use of the term “Classic”. There are thirty-five years of games to choose from, and it just so happens the only classic games are less than three years old?
One has to presume there are broadcast licensing rights that are keeping NBC Sports California from rerunning games from, say the 80’s and 90’s. However, the fact that every single one of these games is from the last three seasons suggests this is a conscious effort on the part of the channel to frame the current Kings as the Kings. Which is fine! Nobody is clamoring to watch big games from the John Salmons-led squad from 2008. But there are whole eras that I suspect many Kings fans, old and new, would be interested in seeing.
Thankfully, there are heroes online who have quietly uploaded onto YouTube a ton of games from several different eras of Sacramento Kings’ history, many of them in full. So, to honor of the terrific idea of the Classic Kings Re-run (with hopefully better execution), here are five classic games from the 2000s. These are just a few of the selections available on YouTube, so please use this as a jumping-off point.