I don't equate this with something like the Buckner thing at all. There will be retribution. Things aren't forgotten. I'm not talking about deliberately injuring anyone or anything like that, by the way. We don't know when, or how, but it will happen. And when it does, everyone will talk about how it redeems 2002. But it will not be fully redeemed until the Kings win a championship, which they will.
There is no debate, there is no controversy. This was a cheat job. Everyone knows it, on both sides, even if they can't admit it. And everyone knows the Kings are coming back. It wasn't just Sacramento that was in love with that old Kings team. Everyone who watches basketball who wasn't rooting for our opponent loved that team, because of the purity of the basketball, it was impossible not to.
What happened in 2002 is still ingrained in the history and spirit of this franchise, and it is part of what motivates this team now, on some level. And the energy that is building now, it is beginning to really spread again, even if attendance doesn't fully reflect it yet. I think we can now be fully forward focused. We can let go of the bad years we just had, stop rooting for lins and draft position. It's time to move forward, be a real team again, a team that you root for to win each and every game. We have some, if not most, of the main pieces of a great team in the making, now it's all about learning and getting better. I hope all fans around here can stop subtly rooting for failure (I was a big fan of the lins when we needed them), but it does take a conscious decision to decide we are fully ready to move forward with what we have, and not care one bit about draft position. I believe we have entered that phase. And much sooner than I expected, I might add.
