Thank you, KingsFans

#1
Hey there everyone!
I'm a long time lurker (almost a decade now), and after last night's win, I thought it's time to share with you my story of becoming a Kings fan.

As a child growing up in Israel and getting interested in basketball, you're pretty likely to end up a Maccabi Tel Aviv fan, and so I did. This alone is probably enough for you to guess when my interest in the Kings began - the 23rd pick in the 2009 draft. Like many Israeli basketball fans, suddenly the Kings became the most interesting team in the NBA. Eventually I ended up finding this forum (this is actually the video that brought me here), and, despite never joining, I read it frequently through the off-season and Casspi's rookie year.
After being part of the forum a for while (albeit passively), I felt connected, and not just because of Casspi. By the end of the season I was rooting for Reke to get 20-5-5 and ROY. Next season came, as well as DMC, and many, many losses. Casspi was still doing well, for the most part, but not as well as everyone'd hoped, and in the off-season he was traded to the Cavs. At this point, my interest in the Kings could no longer be explained by Casspi's presence.
Obviously, I continued following Casspi in Cleveland and then Houston, but I also made sure to keep up to date with the Kings. Starting with the draft and off-season, the early season hopes that it might be different this time, and then the inevitable tanking. I'd make sure to check the box score and read here, although my interest dwindled as the losses piled up every season.
Then came Casspi's return to the Kings and his career's resurgence. Together with DMC's rise to stardom, suddenly I wasn't just interested in the Kings, I actually became a fan. The next 2.5 seasons were fun, even without that much winning.
And then came The Trade. The first thing I did when I heard about it is go see what you guys had to say about it, I knew the forum would explode (and it did). Eventually, as things cooled down (not without casualties), I was happy to see the route the franchise has taken last season with a young core, and I was even happier with how this community (or at least most of it) managed to get excited for the future.

Now, why should you care about all I wrote?
Try to think about how different it is when you're an NBA fan overseas. There are some mega fans who get League Pass and watch a bunch of games every week, but mostly, you barely watch any games. There are ~70 Maccabi games every season, and I try to watch most of them, as well as other basketball games and some other sports in Israel or in Europe. Then, even if I have time to watch some NBA, it has to be an early game that's shown on one of our channels (Christmas is amazing in this regard, but any other week we might only get Hawks-Bulls type of games). The only time I actually manage to dedicate to watch live NBA is the playoffs, and mostly the finals (the finals are brutal, waking up at 3-4am once every 2-3 days, and then going to work immediately after the game).
With that in mind, I can confidently say there is only a handful of Kings games I watched live in the last 9 years. That means that my Kings fandom is mostly box scores, highlight reels and you guys. I don't really have any favorite player, because I barely got to see any of them play (got to see Bogi back in Europe), but I want all of these young guys to succeed, just because I know how much you guys want it. I don't really have anything against the Lakers, but I want them to fail just for your pleasure of it.

Now, this off-season wasn't looking that nice, at least from this side of the pond. Anyone who's seen Doncic play in the Euroleague knew he's gonna be a superstar (I specifically remember a sequence where he scored 7 points in one possession to give Real the lead against Maccabi mid-4th quarter). While posters here made good arguments for taking Bagley, it just felt like a move the Blazers would've made. I wasn't too optimistic about the upcoming season.
Obviously, I was wrong. As the season went by, I kept thinking that at some point this must it, and the losing streak is imminent. But at this point, when I open up the NBA app to check the scores each morning, I fully expect a Kings win every time.
You guys deserve this. You've been through so much the past decade and a half, I can't imagine how it must feel. But now, finally you can truly enjoy the Kings, the success, the media's (positive) attention, everything. You are amazing fans and you have an amazing future ahead of you.
I want to thank you, for making me a Kings fan.

GO KINGS!
YALLA MACCABI!
 
#10
Hello technically a new member but I have been a kings fan Since 2002, been lurking the site.. and Boy did I miss talking to kings fans. I kept my loyalty to the Kings all these years 17 years or so?, to be honest I used to log in on this site in an old name, but happened to forget the account.. at any rate.. Nice to meet you all, and I see familiar names as well..