Stories from the earlier years (split from VF21 blog)

quick dog said:
Remember when Shack won a League award for something or other, and the trophy basketball was to be presented at a half-time ceremony at a Kings game? Apparently, someone "borrowed" the trophy ball and wrote something akin to "Shack is an a-hole" on the ball. Who knows about that infamous incident? I thought, being fundamentally immature, that it was pretty funny at the time. He was indeed an a-hole.

Who wrote it? Is there more to the story?

I always thought that Mike Bibby or Vlade were possible culprits. Was Jason Williams on the team at that time; a "usual suspect".
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It was the ball Shaq was going to score his 20,000th point on. A fan either got hold of it and wrote it beforehand or someone w/ access to the ball wrote it after they pulled it from the game so it wouldn't get lost. It wasn't discovered til after the game. It was cleaned off, he has the ball.
 
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During the '80s and '90s, people did not go to the games to watch the Kings. They went there to see the players from the other teams. The Kings were dreadful! In fact, the entire marketing was built around that fact. "Come see (insert favorite player here) battle the Kings". We usually had 1 or 2 decent starters surrounded by 3 CBA players, with very little chance of winning on a particular night.
 
ZZE916 said:
During the '80s and '90s, people did not go to the games to watch the Kings. They went there to see the players from the other teams. The Kings were dreadful! In fact, the entire marketing was built around that fact. "Come see (insert favorite player here) battle the Kings". We usually had 1 or 2 decent starters surrounded by 3 CBA players, with very little chance of winning on a particular night.
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Hey- Rory Sperrow was no CBA-level talent...

Man we had some BAD players throughout the years. Hell, I think Alaa Abdelnaby even got a few starts...
 
ZZE916 said:
During the '80s and '90s, people did not go to the games to watch the Kings. They went there to see the players from the other teams. The Kings were dreadful! In fact, the entire marketing was built around that fact. "Come see (insert favorite player here) battle the Kings". We usually had 1 or 2 decent starters surrounded by 3 CBA players, with very little chance of winning on a particular night.
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Your right about that. I was at the arena the night Bird made his debut there. When he was introduced, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. He looked around like, what the hell!
 
bajaden said:
Your right about that. I was at the arena the night Bird made his debut there. When he was introduced, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. He looked around like, what the hell!
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I think that might have been my first game. The Kings actually won. It was awesome.
 
hoopsfan said:
Yes, true, and the 4 points came off of freethrows. The LA crowd was actually rooting for the Kings to score and gave them a standing-O when they scored the first point.
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Yeah, because they are all class. :p



















Actually, we know this isn't the case because they don't show up until the second quarter anyways.... ;)
 
Have you ever wondered why there are red seats and blue seats in the lower level at ARCO? The red seats were once considered "premium service" seats. Ticket holders recieved food and beverage service, and halftime stat sheets. It was worth the price premium to be able to order nachos and a Pepsi directly from your seat (no alchohol unless you had "Kings Row" seats), and be closer to the action. One year we showed up for the opening game, and guess what? No more food service. Although ticket prices actually increased that year, service was eliminated without any notification at renewal time. There were a lot of unhappy people, but our objections went unheard. Those red seats are now just a relic of past times...
 
That's not true, ZZE916. I sat in row CC for the opening game (Thank you, Kingsgurl!!!) and we had all the amenities you described. In fact, I still have the food and beverage menu around here somewhere, along with the stat sheet.

It may have been discontinued for a while but I know it's back now and I'm reasonably sure it was last year, too.
 
VF21 said:
That's not true, ZZE916. I sat in row CC for the opening game (Thank you, Kingsgurl!!!) and we had all the amenities you described. In fact, I still have the food and beverage menu around here somewhere, along with the stat sheet.

It may have been discontinued for a while but I know it's back now and I'm reasonably sure it was last year, too.
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Sorry, VF21. It is true. Row CC is on the floor. Those amenities have remained. Look up into the stands at the red seats that are not on the floor (especially those seats behind the baskets). I can assure you food service disappeared long ago. Of this, I am truly certain.
 
I remember Grant Napier pronouncing Shaquille O'neal: Shackwillie O'neal. The call was after a monster dunk in (what I presume to be) Shaq's first game at arco while he was with the Magic. It went something like "Oh my! This Shackwillie O'neal really means business!"

:)Hilarious.

Also on a more sensitive note, anyone remember Jerry Reynolds (or Gary Gerould?) getting grilled by the media for saying Shaq shoots free throws up like squirting a certain type of melon seed between your fingers?

Lord almighty.... our announcers, sometimes, eh.
 
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ZZE916 said:
Sorry, VF21. It is true. Row CC is on the floor. Those amenities have remained. Look up into the stands at the red seats that are not on the floor (especially those seats behind the baskets). I can assure you food service disappeared long ago. Of this, I am truly certain.
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Oh. Ooops.

:o

Your explanation makes a lot of sense, though, since I have wondered for a very long time why some of the seats were blue and the others red...
 
Halloween night in 88/89 I believe. It was the first season at Arco. Dave and Bob from KFBK had a costume contest and went through the crown picking the ten best costumes. I don't know if any of you guys remember the acoustics that first year, but they were terrible. Half time started and as the 10 contestants walked out on the floor, Dave Akinsin (the announcer) made the announcement, but all you could hear was "kabasobdsad". Well, EVERYONE in costume ran onto the floor thinking they could participate. People refused to leave. Just chaos. Gladys Knight, who sang the National Anthem earlier that night had to come back and sing again just to get everyone's attention. There was a 20 minute delay before the start of the 3rd quarter.
 
When I was young my sister and I used to compete to see who could get more autographs at a game. We showed up really early to games and would wait in line, etc., and we ALWAYS came away with a Kenny Smith autograph. Every single game. That guy must have signed more autographs than anyone in NBA history.
 
JayBird said:
I didn't actually watch this game, but i read about it in this book called "The Sports Hall of Shame". It was Kings at Lakers at the old Forum, and the score at the end of the first quarter was LA 40, Sac 4. Chick Hearn put the game "in the refrigerator" in the first quarter. The 36 point margin ended up being the final deficit. That's gotta be the worst Kings horror story I've ever heard.
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Yes, this is true. I remember it.
 
ZZE916 said:
During the '80s and '90s, people did not go to the games to watch the Kings. They went there to see the players from the other teams. The Kings were dreadful! In fact, the entire marketing was built around that fact. "Come see (insert favorite player here) battle the Kings". We usually had 1 or 2 decent starters surrounded by 3 CBA players, with very little chance of winning on a particular night.
Click to expand...


I was going to say this and this is totally true. You have to realize, too, that it was like this for at least 10 years. It was almost like we were in a different league but our team got to play NBA teams. That's what it felt like. And the great thing... everyone in the town still just loved the Kings. Now you can start to imagine the joy and thrills that the winning years brought those fans.

A few memories of my own... I once saw Wayman Tisdale driving on the freeway when I was about 10. We waved like crazy and to our utter delight he waved and flashed his million dollar smile from his red mercedes sedan while talking on probably the first (huge) cell phone ever made.

One year we lost every single road game but 1. That's right: 1-40 road record.

How was Arco Thunder born? From plywood. That's right. The original "temporary" Acro Arena which was basically a converted warehouse with stands thrown together literaly with plywood. The fans quickly discovered that when 14,000 pairs of feet stomped on them it created a thunderous resonating sound, kind of like 14 thousand people stamping on giant plywood boxes in a warehouse. But, there was more. The old scoreboard in that building had these lighted noise meters and when they reached the top, a special light would go off and air would blow out the top, waiving small red banners that kind of looked like a crown on top of a bliking sign that said "Kings". So of course the crowd loved trying to get as absolutely crazy loud as possible to set those things off. Man that was fun!
 
bajaden said:
Your right about that. I was at the arena the night Bird made his debut there. When he was introduced, the crowd gave him a standing ovation. He looked around like, what the hell!
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I think I was at that game too! But that kind of thing was totally normal for us. We'd do it for Michael Jordan and then especially for Kareem at his last game.
 
The Hammer said:
I think I was at that game too! But that kind of thing was totally normal for us. We'd do it for Michael Jordan and then especially for Kareem at his last game.
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Speaking of Kareem...If I remember correctly, we gave him a Harley the final game he played here during his "Farewell Tour". Fired it up, and presented it to him during a timeout (or at halftime). This team was in shambles for so long, the current situation does not look so bad.
 
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