By Sam Amick -- Bee Staff Writer
Columns and archways and basketball courts.
That's where Jason Hart was two years ago, playing in Greece and telling himself every day that a return to the NBA was not a matter of if, but when.
Hart came through the columns and archways near the hardwood again Friday, but this time they were those on the outskirts of Arco Arena - concrete instead of marble but much prettier nonetheless.
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After being introduced alongside undrafted free-agent point guard Ronnie Price in Sacramento, Hart was back on a plane to Los Angeles, the birthplace of his dirty little secret.
He hopes Kings fans can forgive the transgression, but Hart has always been a Lakers fan. Magic was a virtual deity in his eyes, as were Kareem and Byron and the whole cast. But as the years rolled by, Hart learned a lesson from the purple and gold that he's applying to the purple and silver - change is inevitable.
Hart and Price are the sixth and seventh new faces on the Kings roster who weren't around for the team opener last season.
"Everything can't stay the same forever," said Hart, who has played 138 games in four seasons and missed the 2002-03 NBA season while in Greece. "Although the fans would like it to (stay the same), everything has to break up. And I'm glad to be a part of this.
"With Mike (Bibby), Peja (Stojakovic), Bonzi (Wells), Brad (Miller), we'll have four great players, then surround those guys with hard-working players and you've got a pretty good team."
Come tipoff time, Price will have the duty of backing up Bibby, an unlikely reality for a guy who felt lucky to play college basketball. Coming out of Clear Brook High School in Friends-wood, Texas, the now-6-foot-2, 190-pound Price was tiny - 5-8 and 150 pounds soaking wet. He broke his wrist his senior year, playing only five games and bringing a near-end to the influx of college recruiters.
Price eventually accepted an offer Nicholls State but had to pay his own way in the first semester because he'd mulled his decision too long and his scholarship had been given away.
More unrest came after his freshman season, when he said a coaching change changed his view of the Nicholls State program. He transferred to Utah Valley State, a community college at the time that has since become a provisional Division I college.
"I've been blessed," Price said. "It's pretty crazy to think about how it all happened."
Like new teammate Wells the day before, Hart and Price are saying the right things in their early days as Kings. They're preaching defense, which has become the offseason mantra since the Kings lost to Seattle in the first round of the playoffs. "We're on this new defense kick, so those guys should work well," Kings co-owner Gavin Maloof said from Las Vegas. "That's our thing now. We know how to put it in the hole, but we've got to play better defense."
