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The Sacramento Kings Have A Documentary You’ve Never Seen…

By Anthony Cardenas

LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 21: Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson smiles at the 81st annual U.S. Conference of Mayors at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on June 21, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke at the conference addressing about 150 mayors from across the country on issues including the economy, immigration reform and gun violence. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - JUNE 21: Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson smiles at the 81st annual U.S. Conference of Mayors at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center on June 21, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden spoke at the conference addressing about 150 mayors from across the country on issues including the economy, immigration reform and gun violence. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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Loving The Last Dance? There is a documentary about the Sacramento Kings made by ESPN that you will likely never see.

There is plenty of hype and talk surrounding The Last Dance, the 10-part documentary on Michael Jordan‘s Chicago Bulls that is currently airing on ESPN. The hype is warranted, as the series has been captivating. Due to the current sports hiatus, there are fans of other NBA teams wondering if and when their franchise might be the subject of a documentary. The fans of the Sacramento Kings had a documentary made about/for them more than five years ago, we’ve just never seen it.

Down In The Valley was an ESPN production and a part of the successful 30 for 30 franchise. It chronicled the Kings failed relocation saga, mostly from 2013 and their rumored move to Seattle. Most fans know the story already, but having a national production made about our forgotten franchise had us pretty excited.

One of the main characters in the documentary and during the relocation saga was former NBA All-Star Kevin Johnson, who was the mayor of the city of Sacramento at the time. Unfortunately for everyone involved, some sexual abuse allegations against Johnson stemming from his playing days resurfaced in September 2015. Down In The Valley was scheduled to premiere less than a month later.

According to ESPN’s official announcement, the showing of the documentary has been “delayed”, though they have not amended that comment in nearly five years.

There are some lucky eyes who have been able to see it. Despite the allegations, the doc was shown to a local theater audience just a week before its television premiere. Sacramento radio personality Carmichael Dave has also uploaded short snippets from the film to his social media accounts at random.

From what we can tell, we are not seeing Down In The Valley any time soon. There does not seem to be much interest on ESPN’s part to air the project, and the push by Kings fans for the company to release it has slowed. But while watching The Last Dance, we can’t help but wonder what happened to our own little documentary.

Next. Grading Vlade Divac 5 Years In. dark

For continuing coverage of the Sacramento Kings, stay tuned to A Royal Pain.

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