The NBA can be a brutal business, and former Sacramento Kings player Scot Pollard reminded us, and Richaun Holmes, of that on Wednesday.
Sacramento Kings center Richaun Holmes was featured on the latest episode of NBCSports’ Kings podcast Purple Talk, and had kind and promising things to say about Sacramento and his future in the city. He spoke of the fans and the community, and mentioned that he hopes to finish his career with the Kings. One former member of the organization took to Twitter to warn of such talk.
Scot Pollard played for the Kings for five seasons during the franchise’s glory years, and played a big supporting role in their success in that time. During the summer of 2003, Pollard was traded to the Indiana Pacers, and it seems as though he wasn’t all too thrilled with the way the process took place.
On Wednesday afternoon, Pollard quoted a tweet from NBCSports’ James Ham that mentioned Holmes wanting to finish his career in Sacramento with the Kings:
Uh oh. I said the same thing right before I saw me get traded to Indiana on tv. https://t.co/Id3dUGVroG
— Scot Pollard (@ScotPollard31) April 15, 2020
There are a couple of takeaways for us here. First, it is apparent that Pollard found out via television that he had been traded, something that no one would be happy about. But he also mentions that he too said that he wanted to finish his career in Sacramento, and did so just before being dealt.
This might be a theme for the Kings at the center position. DeMarcus Cousins was also vocal about his desire to remain in the California capital before being shipped off unceremoniously in 2017. Our second takeaway from the Pollard tweet is that no player is safe, no matter how much they say they love the city or the situation.
Hopefully for Holmes and the fans, the organization acknowledges the commodity that they have on their roster and treats him with the same love that he shows to the city.
Holmes will be in the final year of a two-year, $9.8 million contract when the 2020-’21 season begins, and will be one of the more affordable talents in the league. The Kings might get lucky when it comes to his impending free agency, as well. If the salary cap is lowered due to the league shutdown and the COVID-19 epidemic, then there might not be as many teams willing to outbid Sacramento for Holmes’ services when the time comes.