Tetsujin
The Game Thread Dude
Kingsfans.com Official Gameday Thread
Game 82
Sacramento Kings versus Phoenix Suns
By Stephen Tetsu, Occasional Game Thread WriterGame 82
Sacramento Kings versus Phoenix Suns
We have this guy on our team so things can't be THAT bad.
Well, this is weird. After years and years of closing out the season having to deal with the Maloofs' latest scheme to fund their cake flavored vodka projects, we have reached the first season finale in years that does not have the potential to be a series finale. Demarcus and company aren't all signing on to do pilots for other networks and this ain't no eight episode True Detective setup. This is some Days of Our Lives stuff. The only thing pulling this show off the air is Hell freezing over.
So yeah, while the season could have ultimately gone better (and really that rings true for any team that doesn't wind up with the championship crown), at least there was a season to be had. And the promise of many more. Sometimes, when we're too busy calling each other names or mourning blown personnel moves A-Z ("WE NEVER SHOULD HAVE RELEASED LOUIS AMUNDSON!"), we as fans seem to forget this.
No matter how busy I've been or am during the basketball season, I've always tried to at least pump out a game thread on the season finale, though in all honesty that may have in small part been a product of "Hey, maybe this is the last chance I'll ever have to write about the Sacramento Kings." The post would always be some sentimental piece, packed to the brim with flowery prose about what the Kings mean to Sacramento or to me, some heady piece urging everyone to fight the good fight and never give up hope. I'm pretty sure I posted like a billion and one links to that Tesla song too (Frankie Hannon's probably living off the royalties provided solely by Kingsfans.com clicks). This season, though, isn't an ending (unless hopefully, we're talking about an end to the fustercluck that is Travis Outlaw at the 2) but the potential beginning to a masterpiece, the next Bach, the next Warhol, the next Justin Bieber.
A lot has happening in my personal life since the start of this current season. I successfully (I think) made the move all the way from the comfy confines of Rancho Cordova all the to the new(ish) surroundings of Northeastern Japan at the end of December. This is, in part, why I've been so inconsistent with the game threads and all that jazz. As it turns out, moving from one homeland to the other is rather difficult. But with all that said, I still tried to make a point of watching all the games, no matter how gut-wrenchingly painful it could get at times. Also, most of the games were now on while I was at work as opposed to afterwork or during some time that I was otherwise free back in the states. And just by doing that, just by spending more time that I probably should arguing over relatively trivial things on this site, I felt at home, if even for just a few hours at a time.
Being several thousand miles away removed from the action after years of regularly attending games, city council meetings, and various rallies has given me an interesting perspective on the whole fandom thing in general. I've noticed that I don't get as indignantly angry at things as I did before, which probably makes me a worse writer but definitely a better person. When (insert player here) does something (awesome/awful), it doesn't quite hit me as it did before. The good times are even better. The bad times aren't as painful (though that's certainly been tested). It's not that I don't feel the same connection to the team as I had before, rather simply having that connection made me feel pretty darn good (which, for a guy with mild Asberger's, is all that matters). Kings basketball has been my boat home and Kingsfans.com has been my anchor. We may all hate each other and I may want to reach through the screen of my battered laptop and wring some of your necks but, by jove, I respect the hell out of each and everyone of you.
So let's raise our glasses (filled to the brim, no doubt, with the latest ZING! masterpiece) to the future, to the idea that the Sacramento Kings even have a future, to the fact that we can all share in the good times and the bad together here as part of the vagabond band of masochists forever known as Kings Fans.
This ZING!'s for you!
Thank you, one and all, for another great season of Sacramento Kings basketball. Now let's go out there and extinguish the Suns to end the year right.
See you guys next season!
-Stephen Tetsu
