Farewell Kings

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Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#61
So how many of you who said you were going to quit are now having second thoughts after seeing the potential for some of our kids?
"Not I, said the fox."

I can't remember whether I actually said that I was definitely going to quit, but I can say unequivocally that I haven't had second thoughts. I feel the same way about the Kings now as I felt a month ago; nothing has changed for me, in that regard.
 

CruzDude

Senior Member sharing a brew with bajaden
#62
One important item is none of us fans really know about what went on behind closed doors in the weeks leading up to Jan 20. Some tidbits leaked out about Cousins going ballistic related to the Warriors game the Kings won but nothing of substance. Was there really a bigger deal that resulted or was it something else. Believe Cousins was a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation and to move ahead, a tough decision was made. Now 4 weeks later the situation with "the kids" is looking up especially related to Skal and Big Papa. Buddy Buckets has become a more known asset as Kings SG of the future. Willie, Big Papa and Koufos are the bigs of the future maybe with Tolliver. Skal is scary good and is only getting better. It takes time. Buddy is becoming solid. Even Galloway is showing some surprising shooting skill. Add to all that 2 top 8 draft choices and my fan future is looking big time fun.

I, as many others, was preconditioned for the loosing being a fan and season ticket holder from 1988 thru 1997. So payoff is coming and thats good enough for me.
 
#63
So how many of you who said you were going to quit are now having second thoughts after seeing the potential for some of our kids?
I never said I was going to quit being a Kings fan, but I did say I was not going to any more games this year (so far I haven't) and that I was cutting my cable because the only reason we even still had cable was for me to watch local sports.

In yet another example of my wife being smarter than me, when our provider got back to us about shutting off the cable, she just negotiated us back down the the "new customer" deal instead of cancelling, knowing full well that I'm a sucker for basketball. And while I've watched more March Madness than Kings games, I have caught parts of most games and watched all of one or two.

I think what changed things a bit for me (other than calming down after the initial trade details came out) wasn't so much that Skal and Buddy and Papa have shown flashes, but that I couldn't really be too angry about the Boogie trade because the much better deal I thought they'd be able to swing just wasn't out there. Boston reportedly had zero interest and that's who I thought was the ideal trade partner. I was most upset because I thought they gave away Cousins for pennies on the dollar instead of getting what they could. I think the reality is that pennies on the dollar was all that was going to be there for them.

I've said all season that I didn't see a path forward with Cousins. He is about to enter his prime and they didn't have a core in place. Most of the vets were/are (a) not difference makers and (b) about to be free agents and the kids were too far off to help. Likewise with any draft pick they might get this year. And they were about to have to lock Boogie in at $40 million or so per year.

Am I happy about where the team is now? Not really. It's another losing season hoping for the lottery to bring the guys to finally help turn things around. But I like our coach. It finally feels like there's some stability in the front office (how good a GM Divac is still being a big question though) and there are some young guys who may not have star potential but are showing some flashes.

I guess all and all, it's not really a worse place to be than before the Boogie trade and possibly a better place. We'll see.
 
#65
So how many of you who said you were going to quit are now having second thoughts after seeing the potential for some of our kids?
Not me. The overall problem remains: They don't know how to build.

Skal looks talented. I think he'd be in a better situation on many other teams. Players here have to fight through so much crap just to become something in Sac, and by the time they becoming something, the organization is almost resentful towards them for it, so they get traded away.

I can't emotionally invest into a situation like that. There's something broken with Sacramento that doesn't solely belong to one GM or owner. It's been a problem for decades. If anything, the love and adoration of the fanbase lets the team get away with pure basketball idiocy. There is a lack of accountability for those up top and so there's never really any need for good basketball smarts within the running of the team. Instead, the Kings have become far better at being spin masters and toying with the fans inexhaustible reserves of hope than they have at becoming a pro basketball team.

If and when the Kings fail, they know how to play a little song and dance to get the fans to come along. If they succeed, then they truly don't know what to do from a basketball perspective and, eventually, when the lack of direction leads to its obvious end, the Kings blow it all up again.

They aren't a NBA team as much as they are a dreams prospector that operates with a shovel in one hand and a stick of dynamite in the other.
 
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#67
I was going to keep quiet but something is bugging me. I have never cared for rubbing noses in things or I told you so's.

Questioning how we all are dealing with something like the trade falls into this catagory for me. If someone needs a break ( be honest it is hell being a fan of this team sometimes) then I say take one. If your totaly fed up I get that too.

If you decide to give your heart more punishment and continue cheering the Kings again, I dont judge. Be like you never left with me.
 
#68
RAMBLING DIATRIBE WARNING:


It's weird hearing people are going to "stop being Kings fans". I never realized it was a choice. I don't think it's an option for me living in NorCal; knowing NorCal.

The latest heartbreak is just another in a long line of heartbreaks that comes with being a small market NBA fan.

When I hear "NorCal" I think of the underdog spirit of "Extreme Northern California"; a place few people know exists or care about in California. In California, NorCal seems like it is treated like a means to an end; a source of water, food and reasonably priced retirement living for the real Californians in the Bay area and south. The Sacramento Kings embody this feeling to me. That forgotten outcast. The ultimate underdog; underrated and ignored. When I watch the Kings play, I want them to win for NorCal; win for that classic American underdog spirit. Will there be heartbreak after heartbreak? Setbacks? Injuries? Questionable management decisions? Criminally lopsided officiating? Tanking? Profit driven owners who try to move the team? Suspiciously poor draft lottery luck? A lack of respect from other teams and TV commentators? Years with horrible records? Free Agent players who refuse to play here even for more money? Trades where key players insist on being waived? Players openly being critical of the team and area? Irresponsible reporting? A lack of national TV exposure?

Yes, there will.

And I will be there, too, yelling, "GO KINGS!".
 
#70
I personally don't understand how you could ever change teams (regardless of geography). That is a foreign thought process for me. I can see how you could stop rooting for your team, or caring, but I can't imagine just all of the sudden (even with all the pain and misery) just say all of the sudden I'm a Spurs fan or I'm a Wolves fan (If you are an adult).

I sat through over 30 years of Cubs misery and the payoff was the most joyful things next to the birth of my kids I have every experienced. That is not hyperbole.
 
#71
I personally don't understand how you could ever change teams (regardless of geography). That is a foreign thought process for me. I can see how you could stop rooting for your team, or caring, but I can't imagine just all of the sudden (even with all the pain and misery) just say all of the sudden I'm a Spurs fan or I'm a Wolves fan (If you are an adult).

I sat through over 30 years of Cubs misery and the payoff was the most joyful things next to the birth of my kids I have every experienced. That is not hyperbole.

Couldn't agree more! Well said.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#72
I personally don't understand how you could ever change teams (regardless of geography). That is a foreign thought process for me. I can see how you could stop rooting for your team, or caring, but I can't imagine just all of the sudden (even with all the pain and misery) just say all of the sudden I'm a Spurs fan or I'm a Wolves fan (If you are an adult).

I sat through over 30 years of Cubs misery and the payoff was the most joyful things next to the birth of my kids I have every experienced. That is not hyperbole.
There seems to be some weird aspect of sports fandom in which a vocal subset of fans wrap themselves in the notion that it is somehow more virtuous to endure an indeterminate amount of abuse or mistreatment or even just regular old disappointment. But the thing is, there's nothing virtuous about it, and nobody would agree that there was anything virtuous about it in any other aspect of life, outside of the context of rooting for a sports team.

As to your first question, there's nothing to understand: fans don't owe sports teams their loyalty. That's it. There's nothing more to it than that. If one were to take your premise at face value, then that would mean that, if you decide to root for a team, once, for any reason at all, then you're obliged to root for that team for the rest of your natural life, and if that team does something that is anathema to your beliefs, then that's just too bad. Your only two options are to capitulate your beliefs to your fandom, or quit watching the sport altogether. Is that what you're suggesting?
 
#73
I sat through over 30 years of Cubs misery and the payoff was the most joyful things next to the birth of my kids I have every experienced. That is not hyperbole.
Did it with the Sox. Cheered the Pats first SuperBowl win in a room full of Rams fans in Vegas and gravitated to the 3 Pats fans there in the end, even though I was only a Pats fan for about 10 years at the time. There are few experiences like it. I highly regret not seeing my Timbers win the MLS cup in person because I had just started a new job and would have had to miss work with an event the next day and couldn't find a way to Columbus and back to Portland without a full day of travel. I can only imagine what a Kings win will feel like because I have liked them for about 2 years longer than I liked the Red Sox and the wait is even longer.
 
#74
There seems to be some weird aspect of sports fandom in which a vocal subset of fans wrap themselves in the notion that it is somehow more virtuous to endure an indeterminate amount of abuse or mistreatment or even just regular old disappointment. But the thing is, there's nothing virtuous about it, and nobody would agree that there was anything virtuous about it in any other aspect of life, outside of the context of rooting for a sports team.
It's not that it's more virtuous. And certainly if you have never had a team from your hometown or you just never liked your hometown team, it is within anybody's rights to change teams. But there is something magical about a team that frustrates you to no end finally getting past the hump, knowing you rode it out hoping that day would come.

You've stuck this out long enough nobody is going to begrudge you if you choose to follow another team. You're not a bandwagon hopper, you're someone that enjoys basketball, and as long as I've known you here you prefer a certain style of ball which means it's clear as day you're not going to jump on the fad of the moment's express. Respect for that.
 
#75
Not me. The overall problem remains: They don't know how to build.

Skal looks talented. I think he'd be in a better situation on many other teams. Players here have to fight through so much crap just to become something in Sac, and by the time they becoming something, the organization is almost resentful towards them for it, so they get traded away.
One of those things I'll never quite understand is when teams are playing and they show the W-L record for them over the last 10 year or over their entire franchise history. It can be interesting to see but it has no bearing on that game, especially if one or both teams have had lots of recent roster change, a new coach etc

The question isn't if the "Kings" don't know how to build but if Vlade and Joerger don't. Plenty of horrible decisions and dysfunction over the years but it only matters if Vlade and Joerger are also dysfunctional.

Now if Vivek truly is a meddler and is not allowing his employees to do their job then that is a major issue and removes most hope of things improving.

But if not, for the first time since Adelman and Petrie the Kings have a GM who had free reign to choose his coach and who seem to have a good working relationship. They may fail, but that has nothing to do with the Kings' history of ineptitude. What happens next is solely on them, good or bad.
 
#76
There seems to be some weird aspect of sports fandom in which a vocal subset of fans wrap themselves in the notion that it is somehow more virtuous to endure an indeterminate amount of abuse or mistreatment or even just regular old disappointment. But the thing is, there's nothing virtuous about it, and nobody would agree that there was anything virtuous about it in any other aspect of life, outside of the context of rooting for a sports team.

As to your first question, there's nothing to understand: fans don't owe sports teams their loyalty. That's it. There's nothing more to it than that. If one were to take your premise at face value, then that would mean that, if you decide to root for a team, once, for any reason at all, then you're obliged to root for that team for the rest of your natural life, and if that team does something that is anathema to your beliefs, then that's just too bad. Your only two options are to capitulate your beliefs to your fandom, or quit watching the sport altogether. Is that what you're suggesting?
I've heard you say this numerous times, but it doesn't really have to do with what I'm talking about. Of course I don't owe anything to the Kings. That doesn't change the fact that I can't just change my mind. I've been a fan for 27 years. It's engrained.

If I was no longer a fan of Sac, I could still enjoy hoops but I personally could not just decide to be a die hard fan of another team.

It's not really a choice, even though I know technically it is.
 
#77
I cant leave. Im too invested. Ive been through too much BS to not get to enjoy the fruits of the team winning again. Im really just waiting until the Kings are the best in Cali again so i can turn up the obnoxiousness meter.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#78
I've heard you say this numerous times, but it doesn't really have to do with what I'm talking about. Of course I don't owe anything to the Kings. That doesn't change the fact that I can't just change my mind. I've been a fan for 27 years. It's engrained.
You're not unique in that regard; I started following the Kings in 1989, back when the only time I got to watch them was when they came out east. Otherwise, I was rooting for a box score, and getting clowned at school for wearing Kings colors in enemy territory.

But that doesn't even matter: I don't have to run through my Kings fan CV. The point is that there can come a point when enough is enough. I am mystified by the cognitive dissonance of people who dismiss the pain of other fans with remarks like, "It's sports, it's not real life!", and then turn around in the next breath and call those same fans "quitters." If it's not 'real life," then whether any fan 'quits' or not shouldn't matter to you (the Royal 'you'), so I don't know why anyone should take offense to it.
 
#79
That's cool, but why/how are Kings fans who don't have an attachment to Northern California supposed to feel that?
Well ... I was born in Eastern Europe ... I live and work in Bay Area ... and I am a fan. And I feel just like any other Kings fan whether he/she lives in midtown Sacramento or Tokyo or London. Of course, we do not owe anything to pro teams but I just cannot change teams. I cannot stop following the Kings and start following the Warriors (THE question I get every day from local bayareans).
 
#81
You're not unique in that regard; I started following the Kings in 1989, back when the only time I got to watch them was when they came out east. Otherwise, I was rooting for a box score, and getting clowned at school for wearing Kings colors in enemy territory.

But that doesn't even matter: I don't have to run through my Kings fan CV. The point is that there can come a point when enough is enough. I am mystified by the cognitive dissonance of people who dismiss the pain of other fans with remarks like, "It's sports, it's not real life!", and then turn around in the next breath and call those same fans "quitters." If it's not 'real life," then whether any fan 'quits' or not shouldn't matter to you (the Royal 'you'), so I don't know why anyone should take offense to it.
I think we are about the same age. 1989 for me as well.

I do not call those fans quitters. I don't think anyone here needs to run through "how they are a true fan" lists. My whole point is, I don't know how someone like you or I, could just up and pick a new team. I mean even though the Hawks would make sense for you, how would you just flip the switch like that?

I don't think I saw a single game of the Kenny Natt era. I had moved out of the area, didn't have league pass, there were zero (maybe one) national games and it was the worst basketball ever (I must have seen at least a bit to know that). But I didn't decide I was a Warriors fan that year.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#82
Well, for starters, I wouldn't see it as flipping a switch. There is no part of me, should I choose to change allegiances, that would occur that quickly. If there were a player in the NBA that I was a big enough fan of, I could do it, but there isn't. If, say, this trade had happened, in the specific manner it did, while Gerald Wallace was still in the league, I'd be a fan of whatever team that Wallace was playing on, but he's retired, and he was the last player that I rode for like that.

I keep an eye on all the teams that have a top-tier big man, because that's what's relevant to my interests, but I haven't reached the point where I'm prepared to consider myself a fan of another team... I'm just not comfortable identifying myself as a Kings fan any more.
 
#83
You're not unique in that regard; I started following the Kings in 1989, back when the only time I got to watch them was when they came out east. Otherwise, I was rooting for a box score, and getting clowned at school for wearing Kings colors in enemy territory.

But that doesn't even matter: I don't have to run through my Kings fan CV. The point is that there can come a point when enough is enough. I am mystified by the cognitive dissonance of people who dismiss the pain of other fans with remarks like, "It's sports, it's not real life!", and then turn around in the next breath and call those same fans "quitters." If it's not 'real life," then whether any fan 'quits' or not shouldn't matter to you (the Royal 'you'), so I don't know why anyone should take offense to it.
So then why are you still here? Seems like you're always posting how it's okay to switch teams, renounce your fandom, etc. But, yet, you're still here and appear to be one of "us."
 
#84
Well, for starters, I wouldn't see it as flipping a switch. There is no part of me, should I choose to change allegiances, that would occur that quickly. If there were a player in the NBA that I was a big enough fan of, I could do it, but there isn't. If, say, this trade had happened, in the specific manner it did, while Gerald Wallace was still in the league, I'd be a fan of whatever team that Wallace was playing on, but he's retired, and he was the last player that I rode for like that.

I keep an eye on all the teams that have a top-tier big man, because that's what's relevant to my interests, but I haven't reached the point where I'm prepared to consider myself a fan of another team... I'm just not comfortable identifying myself as a Kings fan any more.
Saw this after my last post. Got it. So you were really just a DMC fan? So why not become a Pels fan then? Problem solved.There has to be SOME reason you are still here.
 
#85
@ New Era

Why do you care why anyone posts here or not? You do realize that the majority of Kings fans world wide do not post here. Some that used to post here have stopped for various reasons.

Why do some people put so much effort into judging posters on this forum? I am genuinely curious what your point of resurecting this thread was. What was the motivation?
 
#86
RAMBLING DIATRIBE WARNING:


It's weird hearing people are going to "stop being Kings fans". I never realized it was a choice. I don't think it's an option for me living in NorCal; knowing NorCal.

The latest heartbreak is just another in a long line of heartbreaks that comes with being a small market NBA fan.

When I hear "NorCal" I think of the underdog spirit of "Extreme Northern California"; a place few people know exists or care about in California. In California, NorCal seems like it is treated like a means to an end; a source of water, food and reasonably priced retirement living for the real Californians in the Bay area and south. The Sacramento Kings embody this feeling to me. That forgotten outcast. The ultimate underdog; underrated and ignored. When I watch the Kings play, I want them to win for NorCal; win for that classic American underdog spirit. Will there be heartbreak after heartbreak? Setbacks? Injuries? Questionable management decisions? Criminally lopsided officiating? Tanking? Profit driven owners who try to move the team? Suspiciously poor draft lottery luck? A lack of respect from other teams and TV commentators? Years with horrible records? Free Agent players who refuse to play here even for more money? Trades where key players insist on being waived? Players openly being critical of the team and area? Irresponsible reporting? A lack of national TV exposure?

Yes, there will.

And I will be there, too, yelling, "GO KINGS!".
You forgot no soul food.
 
#87
@ New Era

Why do you care why anyone posts here or not? You do realize that the majority of Kings fans world wide do not post here. Some that used to post here have stopped for various reasons.

Why do some people put so much effort into judging posters on this forum? I am genuinely curious what your point of resurecting this thread was. What was the motivation?
Huh? Isn't that the entire point of a forum like this? You care about what other people's opinions are and you exchange them? I just don't understand why somebody would post in here about how it's okay to switch teams, that they can't take being a fan anymore, etc., etc. yet they are still here posting. If that's how they feel, then shouldn't they be over at the NOP forum?

Also, character and loyalty are 2 very important traits. It's just how I was raised, I guess.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#88
So then why are you still here?
Because I ****ing feel like it. Nobody gets to decide whether I stay here but me, whether I continue to root for the Kings, or not.


Saw this after my last post. Got it. So you were really just a DMC fan?
This question only serves to prove that you did not, in fact, "get it." That you are not, in fact, even on the same plane of existence as "getting it." I am now wondering whether you've ever actually comprehended a single thing I've ever had to say about DeMarcus Cousins.
 

dude12

Hall of Famer
#89
Huh? Isn't that the entire point of a forum like this? You care about what other people's opinions are and you exchange them? I just don't understand why somebody would post in here about how it's okay to switch teams, that they can't take being a fan anymore, etc., etc. yet they are still here posting. If that's how they feel, then shouldn't they be over at the NOP forum?

Also, character and loyalty are 2 very important traits. It's just how I was raised, I guess.
That is rich. You come across as high and mighty now that Boogie is gone and you start talking about character and loyalty? You and 1 other forum member came on here repeatedly during the last few years and just spewed venom and now you are trying to bait and target specific members on here because they are upset that Boogie was traded and are having a difficult time coming to a resolution.

What I know is that most of the Boogie defenders and fans are still on here but are attempting to move on as Kings fans and they are doing so without spewing venom on every post they make. There are a lot of people on here handling themselves with some type of composure and not trolling the results or the current make up of the team.
 

Mr. S£im Citrus

Doryphore of KingsFans.com
Staff member
#90
If I can just speak for myself for a minute, contrary to the narrative that @New Era appears to want people to believe, I wasn't ever really a Cousins fan like that. I root for Cousins to succeed, because he's a big man, and I want a big man renaissance in the NBA; I want these guard-run teams to go away and, to quote the great American philosopher Kanye West, never, never, ever come back in style. I also root for Davis to succeed, I also root for Towns to succeed, I also root for Jokic to succeed, I also root for Embiid to succeed, I also root for Gasol to succeed... ****, I even root for Lopez to succeed. That's the primary reason why, over the last several years, my WNBA fandom has started to catch up with (and is in danger of surpassing) my NBA fandom: because bigs still matter in the WNBA.

My continued enjoyment of men's basketball will likely depend on whether or not any team in the next ten years can win a championship with a top-tier big man as their centerpiece... and I wanted that team to be the Kings. Which, in turn, by the transitive property, means that I wanted Cousins to be that big. Anybody who ever thought that my "defense" of DeMarcus Cousins had more to it than that has a reading problem.

My anger over the trade was never about getting rid of Cousins; it was always about my philosophical objection to the manner in which it was done. Vlade Divac, whom I have never liked, handled the trade in a way that I personally find so distasteful, that I don't care if it turns out in the Kings favor; I kind of want it to fail, just to spite him.

That's why I still consider myself undecided: I have come to terms with the fact that I just hate Vlade Divac. What I haven't figured out is whether or not I hate Divac more than I love the Kings.
 
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