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Mark Kreidler: Team needs Petrie to get well soon
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, May 6, 2005
Great: Another Kings week, another Kings injury.
This time it's Geoff Petrie's ticker. But look at it this way: It's the first solid block the Kings have had in weeks.
Someone on Thursday came to talk to me about Petrie's blocked artery, which required an angioplasty procedure Wednesday afternoon at a Sacramento hospital and included the insertion of a stent to prevent a regrowth of the plaque.
"Good thing it wasn't serious," my friend said, thus proving that it wasn't his artery that got invaded.
An artery that is 95 percent blocked in anybody is a serious thing, and if you want to get perfectly perverse about it, allow yourself to be happy on Petrie's behalf that the Kings went out of the postseason in the first round. Petrie had for a month been feeling tightness in his chest when he ran or jogged, but put off seeing anyone about it until the Kings were eliminated.
Hey, you know what? That team finally did the man some good.
With the Kings out and Petrie home, the modern miracles began. We go on all the time about the wonders of arthroscopic surgery, but Petrie went in for a test, was diagnosed, had a coronary angioplasty performed and was all done by 5:30 Wednesday afternoon. Now that's heart smart.
A member of the Kings' staff who visited with him Wednesday evening, in fact, said that Petrie appeared well enough to come in to work.
Better not let that get around. Don't want the man known as a slacker.
"He looked great," said assistant coach Pete Carril, who may be Petrie's closest friend and who coached him as a player in college at Princeton. "He looked 10 years younger.
"You know, that kind of stuff wears on you," added Carril, and he ought to know. Five years ago almost exactly, it was Carril who, after a scare at the Kings' offices in Arco Arena, underwent a procedure to reduce blockage in an artery.
"Now we're even in stents, at one apiece," Carril said with a chuckle.
Of course, the coach still leads Petrie in coronary bypasses, 3-0.
Guess Carril's not one to taunt.
Kings co-owner Joe Maloof knew something was up Wednesday, because Petrie uncharacteristically failed to return promptly his call to begin discussing offseason moves for the franchise.
"Luckily, he's OK," Maloof said. "He'll be laid up for about two weeks, where he can't exercise much, but otherwise he's fine to talk and everything like that."
The Kings certainly have enough to talk about, beginning - and at this point ending - with the Phil Jackson question.
Maloof was uncharacteristically evasive on the subject Thursday afternoon - "We need to talk to Geoff about that. We'll see. I don't know yet," he said at one point - and with good reason: The Maloofs had already decided they wanted to contact Jackson's agent and gauge Jackson's interest in coaching the Kings.
But true to their relationship with Petrie, they needed to run it by him first.
And they will need Petrie's counsel again and again before the Jackson scenario plays itself out, in all its comic glory.
People say that the one person the Kings cannot afford to lose is not a player, but Petrie. The thing is, most of those people don't know how right they are - or why.
Petrie judges talent as well as anybody in the league, but that's obvious. He has acquired some seriously good players over the years (Chris Webber, Mike Bibby), and also some players undervalued by other teams (Doug Christie, Bobby Jackson).
But Petrie is of equal value elsewhere, and most people never see it. He's the off-the-court leader of the franchise, quiet but intensely competitive. He wants to win at everything, all the time. He'd smother you in a game of tennis even if you had the drop on him, speed-wise.
Well, maybe not this week.
(Note to self: Schedule tennis with Petrie for this afternoon.)
Petrie is also the voice of reason within the Kings' offices, and nowhere does that come more critically into play than at a time like this, with the whole Phil Jackson thing about to go full-tilt and set off emotional flashpoints all over the place. Petrie is the best, absolutely the best, at waiting until the shouting dies down in order to really think about what needs to be done.
If the Maloofs want Phil Jackson pursued, then Petrie is the guy to do it. But Petrie is also the man to remind the Maloofs why Rick Adelman was the coach in the first place, to honestly examine just how competitive the Kings can be expect to be over the next couple of seasons, and to help Joe and Gavin try to figure how to get $10 million worth of winning out of a coach each year.
And he'll do it, Petrie will. It's a strong heartbeat that comes from the guy. He can't get well too soon.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/12846009p-13695638c.html
By Mark Kreidler -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, May 6, 2005
Great: Another Kings week, another Kings injury.
This time it's Geoff Petrie's ticker. But look at it this way: It's the first solid block the Kings have had in weeks.
Someone on Thursday came to talk to me about Petrie's blocked artery, which required an angioplasty procedure Wednesday afternoon at a Sacramento hospital and included the insertion of a stent to prevent a regrowth of the plaque.
"Good thing it wasn't serious," my friend said, thus proving that it wasn't his artery that got invaded.
An artery that is 95 percent blocked in anybody is a serious thing, and if you want to get perfectly perverse about it, allow yourself to be happy on Petrie's behalf that the Kings went out of the postseason in the first round. Petrie had for a month been feeling tightness in his chest when he ran or jogged, but put off seeing anyone about it until the Kings were eliminated.
Hey, you know what? That team finally did the man some good.
With the Kings out and Petrie home, the modern miracles began. We go on all the time about the wonders of arthroscopic surgery, but Petrie went in for a test, was diagnosed, had a coronary angioplasty performed and was all done by 5:30 Wednesday afternoon. Now that's heart smart.
A member of the Kings' staff who visited with him Wednesday evening, in fact, said that Petrie appeared well enough to come in to work.
Better not let that get around. Don't want the man known as a slacker.
"He looked great," said assistant coach Pete Carril, who may be Petrie's closest friend and who coached him as a player in college at Princeton. "He looked 10 years younger.
"You know, that kind of stuff wears on you," added Carril, and he ought to know. Five years ago almost exactly, it was Carril who, after a scare at the Kings' offices in Arco Arena, underwent a procedure to reduce blockage in an artery.
"Now we're even in stents, at one apiece," Carril said with a chuckle.
Of course, the coach still leads Petrie in coronary bypasses, 3-0.
Guess Carril's not one to taunt.
Kings co-owner Joe Maloof knew something was up Wednesday, because Petrie uncharacteristically failed to return promptly his call to begin discussing offseason moves for the franchise.
"Luckily, he's OK," Maloof said. "He'll be laid up for about two weeks, where he can't exercise much, but otherwise he's fine to talk and everything like that."
The Kings certainly have enough to talk about, beginning - and at this point ending - with the Phil Jackson question.
Maloof was uncharacteristically evasive on the subject Thursday afternoon - "We need to talk to Geoff about that. We'll see. I don't know yet," he said at one point - and with good reason: The Maloofs had already decided they wanted to contact Jackson's agent and gauge Jackson's interest in coaching the Kings.
But true to their relationship with Petrie, they needed to run it by him first.
And they will need Petrie's counsel again and again before the Jackson scenario plays itself out, in all its comic glory.
People say that the one person the Kings cannot afford to lose is not a player, but Petrie. The thing is, most of those people don't know how right they are - or why.
Petrie judges talent as well as anybody in the league, but that's obvious. He has acquired some seriously good players over the years (Chris Webber, Mike Bibby), and also some players undervalued by other teams (Doug Christie, Bobby Jackson).
But Petrie is of equal value elsewhere, and most people never see it. He's the off-the-court leader of the franchise, quiet but intensely competitive. He wants to win at everything, all the time. He'd smother you in a game of tennis even if you had the drop on him, speed-wise.
Well, maybe not this week.
(Note to self: Schedule tennis with Petrie for this afternoon.)
Petrie is also the voice of reason within the Kings' offices, and nowhere does that come more critically into play than at a time like this, with the whole Phil Jackson thing about to go full-tilt and set off emotional flashpoints all over the place. Petrie is the best, absolutely the best, at waiting until the shouting dies down in order to really think about what needs to be done.
If the Maloofs want Phil Jackson pursued, then Petrie is the guy to do it. But Petrie is also the man to remind the Maloofs why Rick Adelman was the coach in the first place, to honestly examine just how competitive the Kings can be expect to be over the next couple of seasons, and to help Joe and Gavin try to figure how to get $10 million worth of winning out of a coach each year.
And he'll do it, Petrie will. It's a strong heartbeat that comes from the guy. He can't get well too soon.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/basketball/kings/story/12846009p-13695638c.html
