http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/11872638p-12759549c.html
Mark Kreidler: Kings go injury-free all season? A fairy tale
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, December 26, 2004
What, this year was going to be different? This year the planets and stars were going to align to form the shape of the Palms hotel and beam forth some Maloofian, non-corrosive barrier around the basketball team?
Nope. The Kings are what they always are in this mini-era of close interest: Pretty talented, playing in a tough conference, and injured. If they didn't see something like this coming, they weren't paying attention.
Or, as Chris Webber put it the other day, the day after Bobby Jackson learned once again that his season had just been irrevocably altered, "The best reason we need a new arena is because nobody dug up this body that y'all put under (Arco Arena) when y'all built it here."
Curses. Made mortal again.
The Kings do injuries, and that's a fact, not an excuse nor an explanation. It is what they do. They do major injuries, and they do them to team-leading players. They do it annually, and if at all possible, they do it for months at a time. It's the least surprising thing in the world.
And there's no feeling sorry about it. Good teams and bad teams deal with brutal injuries all the time. We now see that there will never be another Rick Adelman-coached team in Sacramento that has a fully healthy squad - and that's not an excuse, either.
It's pro sports. Hurt happens.
For the knocks he takes around these parts, Adelman has proved to be one of the best coaches in the NBA in dealing with long-term losses to star players (and as a former Sixth Man of the Year, Jackson certainly qualifies for that designation). He got 55 wins last season from a team that went without Webber most of the way and then didn't have Jackson at the finish or in the playoffs.
He has consistently maneuvered the Kings into a contending realm, only to go into the postseason while dealing with this injury or that one.
"We've never gone to the playoffs healthy," owner Joe Maloof told me last spring, while watching Webber try to grind his way back into shape after missing most of the season because of a lame knee. "Something's always been wrong. We've never had a fair shot at this thing."
Fair? Yes. Perfect? No.
And it won't be perfect again this spring.
And - this just in - that's life.
Whatever you make of the Kings' future, it's a simple reality that this bunch, the Webber-Peja Stojakovic-Doug Christie core group, is nearing its expiration date. It will play together only so much longer.
And so self-pity isn't an option. The only option, for a team with any aspiration whatever, is consistently strong play and a willingness to go beyond the point of exhaustion.
Mike Bibby? He has to get very good and stay there. Maurice Evans can't be inspired coming off the bench only every once in a while. Webber and Brad Miller have to lead, to say nothing of rebound and defend.
You'd love to think Geoff Petrie could pull a rabbit out of a hat and get Adelman another quality player, but in the end it doesn't matter so much: Adelman is going to ride his primary players until they either drop or prove to him they can't be trusted to do the job.
Petrie and the Maloofs knew going into the season that they were shallower on the bench than they had been in years. This was the team they assembled. They can't be surprised now if Adelman looks up and says, "I believe I'll go with that five right there, until further notice."
Jackson's loss is huge, but hardly shocking, and for two reasons: (1) They're the Kings, and (2) It's Bobby Jackson.
Jackson has been hurt three years in a row. He's an explosive, physical player who does things like drive the lane and challenge Shaquille O'Neal (broken hand, two years ago). He can't go halfway, which means that this kind of stuff is likely to continue happening, which certainly has to affect how the Maloofs view him as they ponder his future and how much they're willing to invest in it.
Jackson's injury changes the dynamic of the postseason, depending upon when he can return and whether he can get into playing shape in time to make a difference. Then again, it's always something. The Kings had no Jackson and a one-kneed Webber the last time around, that seven-game semifinal loss to Minnesota. They went out to Dallas the year before after Webber's initial knee injury. The year before that, the conference finals loss to the Lakers, went off with an injured Stojakovic trying to keep himself in games somehow.
In a perfect world, Adelman and his core players would get the one year in which they were all healthy at the same time. Looks as if this world will have to do. No sense, really, in asking where the bodies are buried. Kings Play Hurt: It's the headline of the era.
Kings vs. Warriors - Time: 6 p.m. TV: CSN
Reach Mark Kreidler at mkreidler@sacbee.com.
Mark Kreidler: Kings go injury-free all season? A fairy tale
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PST Sunday, December 26, 2004
What, this year was going to be different? This year the planets and stars were going to align to form the shape of the Palms hotel and beam forth some Maloofian, non-corrosive barrier around the basketball team?
Nope. The Kings are what they always are in this mini-era of close interest: Pretty talented, playing in a tough conference, and injured. If they didn't see something like this coming, they weren't paying attention.
Or, as Chris Webber put it the other day, the day after Bobby Jackson learned once again that his season had just been irrevocably altered, "The best reason we need a new arena is because nobody dug up this body that y'all put under (Arco Arena) when y'all built it here."
Curses. Made mortal again.
The Kings do injuries, and that's a fact, not an excuse nor an explanation. It is what they do. They do major injuries, and they do them to team-leading players. They do it annually, and if at all possible, they do it for months at a time. It's the least surprising thing in the world.
And there's no feeling sorry about it. Good teams and bad teams deal with brutal injuries all the time. We now see that there will never be another Rick Adelman-coached team in Sacramento that has a fully healthy squad - and that's not an excuse, either.
It's pro sports. Hurt happens.
For the knocks he takes around these parts, Adelman has proved to be one of the best coaches in the NBA in dealing with long-term losses to star players (and as a former Sixth Man of the Year, Jackson certainly qualifies for that designation). He got 55 wins last season from a team that went without Webber most of the way and then didn't have Jackson at the finish or in the playoffs.
He has consistently maneuvered the Kings into a contending realm, only to go into the postseason while dealing with this injury or that one.
"We've never gone to the playoffs healthy," owner Joe Maloof told me last spring, while watching Webber try to grind his way back into shape after missing most of the season because of a lame knee. "Something's always been wrong. We've never had a fair shot at this thing."
Fair? Yes. Perfect? No.
And it won't be perfect again this spring.
And - this just in - that's life.
Whatever you make of the Kings' future, it's a simple reality that this bunch, the Webber-Peja Stojakovic-Doug Christie core group, is nearing its expiration date. It will play together only so much longer.
And so self-pity isn't an option. The only option, for a team with any aspiration whatever, is consistently strong play and a willingness to go beyond the point of exhaustion.
Mike Bibby? He has to get very good and stay there. Maurice Evans can't be inspired coming off the bench only every once in a while. Webber and Brad Miller have to lead, to say nothing of rebound and defend.
You'd love to think Geoff Petrie could pull a rabbit out of a hat and get Adelman another quality player, but in the end it doesn't matter so much: Adelman is going to ride his primary players until they either drop or prove to him they can't be trusted to do the job.
Petrie and the Maloofs knew going into the season that they were shallower on the bench than they had been in years. This was the team they assembled. They can't be surprised now if Adelman looks up and says, "I believe I'll go with that five right there, until further notice."
Jackson's loss is huge, but hardly shocking, and for two reasons: (1) They're the Kings, and (2) It's Bobby Jackson.
Jackson has been hurt three years in a row. He's an explosive, physical player who does things like drive the lane and challenge Shaquille O'Neal (broken hand, two years ago). He can't go halfway, which means that this kind of stuff is likely to continue happening, which certainly has to affect how the Maloofs view him as they ponder his future and how much they're willing to invest in it.
Jackson's injury changes the dynamic of the postseason, depending upon when he can return and whether he can get into playing shape in time to make a difference. Then again, it's always something. The Kings had no Jackson and a one-kneed Webber the last time around, that seven-game semifinal loss to Minnesota. They went out to Dallas the year before after Webber's initial knee injury. The year before that, the conference finals loss to the Lakers, went off with an injured Stojakovic trying to keep himself in games somehow.
In a perfect world, Adelman and his core players would get the one year in which they were all healthy at the same time. Looks as if this world will have to do. No sense, really, in asking where the bodies are buried. Kings Play Hurt: It's the headline of the era.
Kings vs. Warriors - Time: 6 p.m. TV: CSN
Reach Mark Kreidler at mkreidler@sacbee.com.
