AleksandarN
Starter
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/12834543p-13684515c.html
SEATTLE - It was less than a year ago that Peja Stojakovic, coming off a frustrating playoff exit and stung by criticism of his play and his heart, rocked the Kings' world by suggesting they trade him.
Almost a year later, this update: Still playing in purple. OAS_AD('Button20');
http://ads.sacbee.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_lx.ads/www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/1012301070/Button20/Sacbee/cars_160_siy_may_5/cars_160x600_siy04.html/31383436356663643431666539623230?_RM_EMPTY_ And that's unlikely to change.
"I think he's pretty happy," team executive Geoff Petrie said Tuesday evening before Stojakovic assumed his familiar starting role at small forward in the Kings' playoff game against the Seattle SuperSonics and scored 38 points in a 122-118 elimination loss.
"He hasn't said anything to indicate otherwise," Petrie said.
Despite Stojakovic's rather calm insistence that he and the Kings would be better off with a parting of ways, it was never close to happening. Petrie told his top scorer last summer he had no intention of trading him, and the executive says the two haven't had a substantive conversation about it since then, though they've talked many times.
Publicly, Stojakovic has dropped the subject.
Stojakovic last summer skipped the Olympics, became a first-time father, served a mandatory shift in the Greek army and reported to the Kings' training camp in less than stellar shape. He also used the occasion of his return to say he and Chris Webber had no major issues, though it was clear Stojakovic had been hurt by Webber's post-playoff insinuation that he and Vlade
Divac, among others, weren't tough enough to win.
But the ensuing season has been mostly controversy-free, if not Stojakovic's finest work all around. And despite drops in the Serb native's shooting percentages and injuries that limited him to 66 games, Webber's trade to Philadelphia underscored the idea that the Kings plan to move forward with Stojakovic as a foundational player.
"He's a guy who is going to average 20 points a game in the league for quite a few more years," Petrie said. "I think he has some things he can improve on, but he's still a very, very fine player."
A long memory
Mike Bibby won't forget how the Sonics ran their collective mouths in this first round.
The Kings guard went against his normally quiet nature before Game 5, venting mostly about Sonics big men Jerome James and Reggie Evans. Both said plenty about the Kings, from questioning their toughness to flat-out calling them babies.
Bibby liked none of it.
"They talk a lot of (stuff)," Bibby said. "I'm upset that they're talking like that. It's still the first round. It ain't over yet. And the people that are talking don't need to be talking."
Of James, he said, "Four games doesn't make you a star."
And of Evans: "Reggie Evans, (who's) going out there and fouling, flopping. He has no right to talk. He doesn't score any baskets. He goes out there and fouls."
James, the Sonics' center who was cut by the Kings in 2000, has been given the speaking platform because of his elevated play. His scoring average has nearly quadrupled from his career mark to the postseason. But the validity of his tales was questioned again.
Kings coach Rick Adelman questioned James' story of his Sacramento departure, with James saying he was given a garbage bag to pack his stuff on the way out and Adelman denying it.
Sunday, James - who owns a home in Sacramento close to Bibby's - said he and Bibby were "cool," and that he'd had Bibby over for barbecues during the summer.
Bibby laughed at the notion.
"Yeah, we live in the same neighborhood, but I don't really know the guy," Bibby said. "I've never been to his house before. He's never been to mine."
J-Will strikes
Who said Jason Williams is a bad guy? Not Kings media relations assistant Chris Clark.
Williams - a former King now playing for the Memphis Grizzlies - was verbally abusive to a Memphis Commercial
Appeal columnist. Upset when he thought some of his comments were taken out of context in a story, Williams took a pen out of writer Geoff Calkins' hands twice, then told him, "You ain't writing nothing, homeboy" while trying to keep him from interviewing other Grizzlies.
Clark, though, remembers a different side of J-Will. In 2001, Clark made food runs to McDonald's for Williams before every game, bringing the hefty order of 20 chicken nuggets, a large fries and two apple pies. Every time, Williams would give Clark $75 and let him the keep the change. And, yes, Clark said Williams would eat almost all of it.
"He was great to me," Clark said.
What, Corliss worry?
Amid the pregame tension in the locker room, there was Corliss Williamson, wearing a huge grin on his face. Win or lose, the veteran forward was scheduled to board a red-eye to Little Rock, Ark., for the birth of his son after Game 4.
If the Kings had won Tuesday, the plan was to return to Sacramento on Thursday. Now he'll have time to spend with his wife Michelle and their newborn.
"They (family members) are picking me up at the airport, and as soon as I get to the hospital, the baby is going to be born," Williamson said. "Michelle is waiting for me. But it hasn't been hard to concentrate at all. I've been playing basketball for so long, you learn how to focus on what you have to do." Smiling, he added, "but I am definitely excited
SEATTLE - It was less than a year ago that Peja Stojakovic, coming off a frustrating playoff exit and stung by criticism of his play and his heart, rocked the Kings' world by suggesting they trade him.
Almost a year later, this update: Still playing in purple. OAS_AD('Button20');
http://ads.sacbee.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_lx.ads/www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/1012301070/Button20/Sacbee/cars_160_siy_may_5/cars_160x600_siy04.html/31383436356663643431666539623230?_RM_EMPTY_ And that's unlikely to change.
"I think he's pretty happy," team executive Geoff Petrie said Tuesday evening before Stojakovic assumed his familiar starting role at small forward in the Kings' playoff game against the Seattle SuperSonics and scored 38 points in a 122-118 elimination loss.
"He hasn't said anything to indicate otherwise," Petrie said.
Despite Stojakovic's rather calm insistence that he and the Kings would be better off with a parting of ways, it was never close to happening. Petrie told his top scorer last summer he had no intention of trading him, and the executive says the two haven't had a substantive conversation about it since then, though they've talked many times.
Publicly, Stojakovic has dropped the subject.
Stojakovic last summer skipped the Olympics, became a first-time father, served a mandatory shift in the Greek army and reported to the Kings' training camp in less than stellar shape. He also used the occasion of his return to say he and Chris Webber had no major issues, though it was clear Stojakovic had been hurt by Webber's post-playoff insinuation that he and Vlade
Divac, among others, weren't tough enough to win.
But the ensuing season has been mostly controversy-free, if not Stojakovic's finest work all around. And despite drops in the Serb native's shooting percentages and injuries that limited him to 66 games, Webber's trade to Philadelphia underscored the idea that the Kings plan to move forward with Stojakovic as a foundational player.
"He's a guy who is going to average 20 points a game in the league for quite a few more years," Petrie said. "I think he has some things he can improve on, but he's still a very, very fine player."
A long memory
Mike Bibby won't forget how the Sonics ran their collective mouths in this first round.
The Kings guard went against his normally quiet nature before Game 5, venting mostly about Sonics big men Jerome James and Reggie Evans. Both said plenty about the Kings, from questioning their toughness to flat-out calling them babies.
Bibby liked none of it.
"They talk a lot of (stuff)," Bibby said. "I'm upset that they're talking like that. It's still the first round. It ain't over yet. And the people that are talking don't need to be talking."
Of James, he said, "Four games doesn't make you a star."
And of Evans: "Reggie Evans, (who's) going out there and fouling, flopping. He has no right to talk. He doesn't score any baskets. He goes out there and fouls."
James, the Sonics' center who was cut by the Kings in 2000, has been given the speaking platform because of his elevated play. His scoring average has nearly quadrupled from his career mark to the postseason. But the validity of his tales was questioned again.
Kings coach Rick Adelman questioned James' story of his Sacramento departure, with James saying he was given a garbage bag to pack his stuff on the way out and Adelman denying it.
Sunday, James - who owns a home in Sacramento close to Bibby's - said he and Bibby were "cool," and that he'd had Bibby over for barbecues during the summer.
Bibby laughed at the notion.
"Yeah, we live in the same neighborhood, but I don't really know the guy," Bibby said. "I've never been to his house before. He's never been to mine."
J-Will strikes
Who said Jason Williams is a bad guy? Not Kings media relations assistant Chris Clark.
Williams - a former King now playing for the Memphis Grizzlies - was verbally abusive to a Memphis Commercial
Appeal columnist. Upset when he thought some of his comments were taken out of context in a story, Williams took a pen out of writer Geoff Calkins' hands twice, then told him, "You ain't writing nothing, homeboy" while trying to keep him from interviewing other Grizzlies.
Clark, though, remembers a different side of J-Will. In 2001, Clark made food runs to McDonald's for Williams before every game, bringing the hefty order of 20 chicken nuggets, a large fries and two apple pies. Every time, Williams would give Clark $75 and let him the keep the change. And, yes, Clark said Williams would eat almost all of it.
"He was great to me," Clark said.
What, Corliss worry?
Amid the pregame tension in the locker room, there was Corliss Williamson, wearing a huge grin on his face. Win or lose, the veteran forward was scheduled to board a red-eye to Little Rock, Ark., for the birth of his son after Game 4.
If the Kings had won Tuesday, the plan was to return to Sacramento on Thursday. Now he'll have time to spend with his wife Michelle and their newborn.
"They (family members) are picking me up at the airport, and as soon as I get to the hospital, the baby is going to be born," Williamson said. "Michelle is waiting for me. But it hasn't been hard to concentrate at all. I've been playing basketball for so long, you learn how to focus on what you have to do." Smiling, he added, "but I am definitely excited
I can't believe those two were born in Merced, CA.
