Author: lleonardbw

NFL Pro Bowl report: Taking a look at this week’s quarterback selection

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by Morris Phillips

HONOLULU–Jerry Rice has made some nice selections for his quarterback roster, Drew Brees New Orelans, Phillip Rivers San Diego, and Alex Smith Kansas City. For Smith he can make all the throws he’s an above average quarterback in the NFL. His history in the leauge hasn’t been the smoothest or the brightest but obviously that changed a lot this year.

The Chiefs were incredible in terms of winning games and making an impact on the AFC playoff race and he deserves a lot of credit for that. It should be wonderful this week in Honolulu as the quarterback and Smith should have a great game. Brees the other selection is going to play great, Brees is one of the NFL’s fastest at having touch on passes.

Brees is what you might call the anti 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in terms of disability to make different throws from different places. That’s what Kaepernick needs to work on is his touch and Brees has that. Once again they should have a great team on Sunday and we can see why he was the number one pick for Team Rice.

In the last couple of years Rivers has had a terrible problem with turnovers anbd intrerceptions and this past season that saw the real Rivers and Kennan Allen the Chargers receiver from Cal the first round pick that had a lot to do with that in making himself available and catching a lot of passes from Rivers.

Once again Rivers should have a great weekend and expect him to play a lot and he’s the last guy especially with his enthusiasm that you definitely want to get a guy like that in the game.

Dieon Sanders selected Cam Newton from the Carolina Panthers to be one of his quarterbacks and Newton has a lot to make up for his first year in Honolulu didn’t go well and he’s kind of gone to the loss there as a rookie and he’s a third year player now and will probably have a much better showing and Newton has lost some of his zip as an NFL quarterback especially this season.

For Newton this has to be personal and he didn’t even look good two years ago but he’s going to want to look a lot better on Sunday. The other Sanders’ selction is the Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck and he had a star crossed season. When the Colts lost Reggie Wayne their number one receiver the veteran of the team it really hurt his ability to get the ball down field to make plays. This week should be a nice departure from that for Luck he’ll have plenty of targets to throw to.

One thing about the other quarterback selection of Sanders of Philadelphia’s Nick Foles he won’t have his best game of the year. He already did that in Oakland with seven touchdown passes against the Raiders earlier this year and kind of came out of nowhere in terms of taking over that job in Philadelphia.

Foles is a promising young quarterback whose very exciting from an offensive system and it should interesting if they incorporate that pace and that system on Sunday to accomadate him to see if he can do the same stuff he did in Philadelphia.

Morris Phillips is covering the NFL Pro Bowl in Honolulu for Sportstalk this week

Larry Leavitt on Pro Hockey: Bulls won’t cancel any games; new owners to take over

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by Larry Leavitt

DALY CITY–San Francisco Bulls CEO Angel Batinovich said that the Bulls have requested additonal time to make the transfer of team ownership complete. Bulls current owner and head coach Pat Curcio is in Philadelphia for league meetings putting the final touches on an agreement with the new owners and Batinovich said that the team is going to play it’s regularly scheduled games at the Cow Palace, they are expected back for the Thursday January 30th game.

The league accepted and has granted the team’s request for extra time to get the negotiations in place for the new ownership group. The league has set up the timeline and requesting that Curcio and the team get it done and that they will support the Bulls in the transfer as far as they can.

Meanwhile the Bulls do not plan on canceling any of the scheduled games which are slated for January 30 and 31st and progress moving forward is always good and it’s better than coming out saying we’ve folded were out and were done. There’s hope and hope is what you need right now and you take what you can get.

The main thing is the venue they need to figure out what their going to do whether they renegoiate the contract with the existing venue at the Cow Palace or whether they go to Oakland or Fresno which was stated earlier. Get that fixed figure out and where your going to play and go on from there. If it’s a new ownership group if they have people in place we don’t even know who these people are.

If they have people in place and they want to change things they will if they don’t have people in place and their just financial backers and they slowly want to move into and they’ll probably keep the status quo and go with what they’ve got. It all depends on who this ownership group is.

I can speak from what I would do and if this was my team that was in financial hardship I’d work out a deal where I’m still involved. It’s heart and soul it’s a dream that Curcio had and I can’t imagine he’s going to sell it all off, he could but then if you’ve got your heart and soul in something you still want to be a part of it if you can.

Curcio can still be a partial owner or a partial investor and if that’s where it is that’s up to the group of investors on how they want to run the front office and how they want the coaching staff to work. If they already have hockey history, if the investors have other venues or other hockey interests and they already have some staff they could already intergrate in that it might happen. One thing we do know there will be Bulls hockey at the Cow Palace next week Thursday night.

Larry Leavitt does Pro Hockey commentary each week for Sportstalk radio

NFL Pro Bowl report: Game could be highlighted by array of Chiefs players

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by Morris Phillips

HONOLULU–The most interesting thing is you could end up tackling your own teammate under the new Pro Bowl format when as in this case Pro Bowl honary team captains Dieon Sanders and Jerry Rice who might pick teammates to play against each other. They could end up blocking or guarding their teammate. In regards to the San Francisco 49ers and Oakland Raiders obviously they won’t see that because they’ve opted out with the exception of 49ers safety Eric Reid who will be the one 49er representative and the Raiders Marcel Reece that’s really the most intesting thing.

Your going to see guys from different teams together but you defintely don’t want to be tackling your own teammates you might get a phone call from the general manager at half time. You have to give the league credit for trying to change it and if anybody wants to inject the issue of records of the Pro Bowl they aren’t exactly hollowed treasured records in that respect I don’t have an issue with it either.

The Atlanta Falcons Tony Gonzalez was selected for the Pro Bowl in place of the 49ers Vernon Davis, it’s great for Gonzalez because he came back to accomplish something that was not as important to him as it was to the organization that he plays for in Atlanta and his teammates. It obviously didn’t happen in a really dignified way
for him to end his football career in Honolulu this week.

The Kanasas City Chiefs quarterback Alex Smith has been chosen for the Pro Bowl and he had a great season in Kansas City and he wasn’t really a factor in them losing the playoff games two weeks ago congratulations and the 49ers are questioned if they should have continued with Smith and going with 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. This is Smith’s first selection to the game.

The Chiefs have the most selections and they deserve that, you got to give them credit for putting it all together with head coach Andy Reid in his first year. Just like the 49ers, Kansas City has a strong core of players that obviously didn’t do very well last year. So it’s interesting how the NFL has these pockets of talented players that don’t find their way to fruition unless they have the right coach and right situation.

The other aspect here is the Pro Bowl is not just losing just two teams, the two teams that are in the Super Bowl the Seahawks and the Broncos. The game is also losing the other two teams as well the Patriots and the 49ers. Nobody wants to lose, in the conference championship and playing it the following week in Honolulu. There are a number of injured players the 49ers Mike Iupati, Frank Gore, and not that you want to bounce back with another game so you have to look at that too, their losing four teams effectively for the Pro Bowl every year.

Morris Phillips is covering the Pro Bowl for Sportstalk Radio

Michael Duca on Cal basketball: Bears get set to battle USC and UCLA in the Southland this week

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by Michael Duca

BERKELEY–The Cal Golden Bears are the avis of the Pac 12 their number two and their right behind Arizona and Arizona is only ahead of them because they played one more game which they won that game. Cal is undefeated in the conference and their off to their best start since 2007. They didn’t get off to a great start against Washington State they were trailing early and as head coach Mike Montgomery said “if were not ready to play we can’t play well against anybody.”

They snapped out of it late in the first half and went on a huge run 23-4 and they really put that game in the cooler, this is a team that can do that, they defend on the rebound. If you look at the box score and look at the distribution of the rebounds Cal’s Richard Solomon is going to get ten or 11 a game and David Kravish is probably going to get six or seven or maybe even eight or approach double figures on occasion as the other low post.

Cal’s Tyrone Wallace is averaging somewhere in the neighborhood of six rebounds a game Justin Cobbs gets more than his fair share of rebounds. Everybody is taught by Montgomery to look for the ball, everybody can help rebound you can position yourself and watch how other teams shoot the shoot around and see where the ball tends to come off the iron when they miss.

As you practice as you play, everybody on the floor is aware of the fact that they have a duty to throw themselves on the floor and scrap for the rebound because that’s how you complete a defensive stop if the team shoots misses you got half of a defensive stop the other half is to get the ball.

The Bears have one big test coming up this week, they should be able to handle USC, but UCLA (14-4) kind of annointed themselves as the best team in the conference. If not the best team to compete with Arizona for the top spot and they had their hats handed to them pretty well by Utah. That was a signature win for the Utah program that was completely down in the dumps two years ago.

To beat UCLA is a great win for Utah and a very serious loss for UCLA one that knocked them out of the top 25. You know that the Bruins are going to be pardon the expression loaded for bear this week in games against Stanford and Cal. Their looking to redeem themselves and to get back into the thick of it. So that game at Pauley Pavilion is going to be is going to be a supreme test for the Bears.

This game will be a toss up and it’s no telling who is the hands down winner when Cal gets to UCLA but there is no better X’s and O’s coach than Montgomery. If there are weaknesses on UCLA that can be exploited he’s going to tell his kids what they are and how they going to do it. If they execute this plan that is another thing entirely, but their going to know how to do it.

Michael Duca does commentary on Cal basketball each week for Sportstalk radio

Larry Leavitt on Pro Hockey: Bulls looking to fold as early as next week, league meeting Tuesday, team siting financial issues

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by Larry Leavitt

DALY CITY–Team sources say that the San Francisco Bulls will fold or move from the Cow Palace in Daly City as early as next week. Pat Curcio head coach and team owner said that the team is having not only issues with drawing fans at the gate but the team’s landlord at the Cow Palace are not the most cooporative management. Curcio and the Bulls have had to melt the ice several times to meet the Cow Palace schedule for shows on demand, a Rodeo, Dog show and now a Miley Cirus concert coming.

The Bulls who are the main tenant in the building feel they are not being treated as the main tenant siting one of the many reasons why the team wants to move. The reason they may fold also is financial the team lost $2 million last season and if the team can not make it’s budget which includes payroll and overhead they will have to close business. Their gate has been a small draw to say the least on some nights they’ve drawn crowds of 500 or less fans.

Curcio has poured a lot of his and his investors money into the team and the improvements of the Cow Palace with a new speaker system to the icing refridgeration system for the ice has run the team into the millions. The Bulls are considering locating to either Fresno or the Oakland Coliseum Arena the former home of the NHL California Golden Seals. The Bulls are hoping for this latter option. The Coliseum is hosting an ice show in February and it is the team’s hopes that they can play a couple of games there and get the draw.

The Bulls like the BART access that the Coliseum gives something that the Cow Palace does not provide. Curcio’s thinking in this is if the Bulls can get the fans from the East Bay to come by train and drive they can develop a new fan base and they would expect a better crowd for their home games drawing from some East Bay cities that already present a hockey interest. The Bulls a Sharks affiliate are independent and will get no financial help from the Sharks.

Curcio will be in a league meeting in Philadelphia to discuss the future of the Bulls on Tuesday to get league approval for a move or worse to fold up business. This question hangs in the balance as the league and Curcio will look at the team finances, how the Cow Palace landlords treated the Bulls, and the possibilities of moving to Fresno or Oakland to name a few issues.

Game Schedule upcoming if team lasts: It’s an ineresting schedule the San Francisco Bulls played the Stockton Thunder Sunday afternoon and they started the game mid-day and their rival to the NFC Championship game on television and it took the crowd away from that game and the crowd was quite into it as they were watching the big football game. The Thunder none the less and the Bulls tied this game up at 2-2 and at the end of the game of overtime they went to the shootout.

The skills competition went over and fortunately for the Bulls they scored more goals in the shootout and took home the two points which they really needed they had a little bit of problems on the road with Ontario and Bakersfield and now their coming home for some homecooking on Thursday the 30th versus Stockton (again) and Friday the 31st against the Colorado Eagles both at the Cow Palace.

The Bulls after last Thursday’s game in Stockton are now taking off ten straight days before the game on the 30th and it’s the ECHL who does the scheduling and the Bulls don’t do it themselves. It’s kind of an odd schedule and they need to take advantage of it to be honest with you and they need to get some practice in.

They do have from the 20th through the 29th they can practice for power plays, they practice their penalty kills, and it could only help them in the future. This is one of those weird stretches that they have a week and half off at home and they can really do some damage if they put their mind to it.

Larry Leavitt does Pro Hockey commentary each week for Sportstalk Radio

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: How the Broncos and Seahawks match up for Super Bowl XLVIII

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That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary

What can you say about the Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning he calls his own plays he’s almost like a real genius there with the Broncos on the field and the Seahawks Russell Wilson has a lot of guts , Wilson can scramble with the best of them and it should be a great match up and I don’t expect to see a blow out and it could be a very close game. Denver and Seattle they deserve it.

They played great football all season long and the Seahawks in the first half of the year looked like the best team in the world then they went into a little slump.Wilson wasn’t well and they had a couple of injuries and now their clicking in the game and they just beat the 49ers and Manning they didn’t have much trouble in New England against another great quarterback and potential Hall of Famer Tom Brady.

So this has been for the NFL some great teams that the 49ers have faced and the 49ers who lost to Seattle on Sunday have nothing to be ashamed about. There were a couple of bad calls from possesion by the referees but in the end and I like the 49ers but in the end the 49ers had three turnovers by the 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the last two minutes that’s what cost them the game basically.

I agree wholeheartedly with the oddsmakers that they have favored the Denver Broncos for the Super Bowl and Manning if you listen to his interview after the game last Sunday he conducted himself almost like a coach and he happened to be a great quarterback but he’s almost like a coach and the guy is very brainy. He knows how to rally his own troops and he meets with the coach but he makes his own calls.

The Broncos just for the sheer fact that it’s Manning at the conrols they have to favored and even if the 49ers would have won Manning and Denver would have been favored over the 49ers and we have to make that clear. It’s hard to find a guy with a better passing record. So I’m not surprised and I agree with the oddsmakers that Denver should be the favorite.

Sharper faces double trouble in double rape accusations: Former defenseman of the Green Bay Packers Darren Sharper not only is looking at a double rape charge but also may lose his job as an analyst with the NFL Network. What can you say about someone whose facing charges like that? This is where the NFL raises it’s ugly head and all jokes aside about the National Felony League for some reason there’s a lot of violence in the sport and a lot of the guys not most but a lot of the guys get charged with rape and violent crimes in the NFL.

Sharper is going to have to get his life straighten out and will probably lose his job at the NFL Network on camera and television because most contracts where broadcasters have a moral clause like assault or violent crimes chances are they won’t survive. Some media people have survived DUI charges. So battery, assault, rape your talking about serious crimes I’m not saying DUI is not a serious crime because there a lot of folks who have been under the influence and not only killed themselves they could kill somebody else.

Unless Sharper can prove that these charges are false accusations a double rape charge spells almost the end for Sharper with the NFL and his broadcasting days and most important of all his freedom.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk radio

49ers report: The final analysis of a razor thin match lost in Seattle

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by Daivid Zizmor

SANTA CLARA–This is the first time in the last two years where the crowd didn’t have a huge role, the Niners did a good job these were two really good teams battling it out Seattle did have a slight edge with the crowd I’d be reluctant to say it had no effect on the game. It certainly wasn’t as drastic as we’ve seen in the past. For the most part this was pretty evenly played.

The Niners played hard even though the outcome wasn’t what they wanted they truly proved that they could play a decent game up in Seattle even though losing 23-17 this game went to the end and remember the interception came with 15 seconds left on the clock. Giving some slightly better time management the Niners would have had a few more shots at the end zone.

If the 49ers protected the ball a little bit better they might have had a better outcome but for the most part. this is a frustrating game for the 49ers because they had their opportunities and the real sad part about it for the team is that they kind of missed those. Early in the game on the very first play the offense forces a fumble and recovered it and gave the ball to the 49ers on the 15 yard line of Seattle and they only kicked a field goal.

Plays like that can’t happen you get a big play like that and we saw that happened time and again in the playoffs, the 49ers against Carolina early on we get deep into opposition territory and getting into the end zone and settle for a field goal when they need touchdowns. It’s okay to kick a field every now and then you got to score more touchdowns then your kicking field goals especially in the playoffs.

Then later in the game the Niners just had a couple of bad turnovers the interceptions thrown by 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick to Seattle strong safety Kam Chancellor in the fourth quarter coming off that great stand they had against Seattle in that last game they had with them at Candlestick to win that really hurts, that gave the Seahawks a chance to kick another field goal to make it a six point game.

That was a huge difference if they had moved down the field and scored or at least kept Seattle off the board the 49ers would have been able to at least tie it with a field goal instead of having to go all the way down the field and score a touchdown and force the issue.

This was a very good game, two really good teams, battling it out, the Seahawks won so in theory you can say Seattle was better but if you get these two teams together ten times on a neutral site it’s probably going to be a draw your going to see it as a 5-5 match. These teams are so well matched up their built to beat each other that’s how they measure each other.

The Niners labored this season, lost in the NFC Championship and now look to the future in the fall of 2014 and will open a new stadium in Santa Clara this August. Head coach Jim Harbaugh and Kaepernick will have to build for the future.

David Zizmor covered the NFL for Sportstalk and will be doing commentary for Warriors basketball starting next week for Sportstalk radio

Michelle Richarson on the NCAA: Oglesby who was forgotten comes back to inspire Iowa upset

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by Michelle Richardson

Iowa 94 Minnesota 73: Here’s the thing about this game all it takes is just one team and Josh Oglesby who was almost forgotten on Iowa helped turn the game around and all it takes is one person. As I always tell co-talk show host Jeremy Kahn you’ve got to play the game. It’s the way the game should be played, it’s not like this person is going to win, it’s like what’s the use of playing the game.

It’s like giving the game on just word of mouth, this game was an upset definitely, Minnesota is more of a basketball team than a football team so this was a solid, a solid win by Iowa pulling away. Number 14 Iowa won this one from an unranked Minnesota team. You had high points from Minnesota’s Andre Hollins with 20 and Austin Hollins with 13.

Andre hit the first high points in 34 minutes and Austin the guard for Minnesota supplied his 13, Minnesota had good discipline, they didn’t have great discipline. Iowa had great discipline they got over 40 points off the bench with Oglesby finishing with a team leading 17, Iowa’s Roy Devyn Marble with 16, and top scorer Aaron White 18.

Michigan 77 Wisconsin 70: The Big Ten is way deeper than people are actually giving them credit for and for an unranked Michigan team which is to go into Wisconsin at the Cole Center and walk away with a victory and a seven point victory at that that’s a large margin of victory. Wisconsin is not a team that will allow you to come into their house and run away with a big victory.

Michigan was 29-53 off field goals and for 3 pointers they were seven for 13, lots and lots of fouls committed in this game there were 14 by Michigan, 15 by Wisconsin which is really a lot. There were so many that it just kind of balanced itself out. Those turnovers will come back and kill you if you don’t watch out.

With that many being had by both of them they were trying to see who could outkill each other with the flagrent fouls. Who could kill the person first, they were trying to kill themselves. Looking at their starting five, three of their starting five was in double digits Michigan’s Nik Stauskas led with 23, Caris LeVert 20, and Glen Robinson III had 14.

Kansas 80 Oklahoma State 78: Everybody is watching the Kanas Jayhawks because of Andrew Wiggins, they’re also watching Oklahoma State because of Marcus Smart and his not going into the NBA draft and he decided to stay in school and work on his game he finished last Saturday with 16 points. This was one of those games that you wanted to see.

It really turned out to be as former ABC broadcaster Keith Jackson would say “a barnburner”, Kansas was leading at the half and never let go even though they were outscored in the second half by Okalahoma State. They never relinquised the lead. You had good play by the starting five for Oklahoma State everybody was in double digits except for Brian Williams who was held to two points.

You had more consitent play with Kansas and wth everybody being involved, it was just a more balanced game. For the Jayhawks only two people finished in double digits and they still won Naadir Tharpe 21 and Joel Embiid 13.

Michelle Richardson does weekly commentary on the NCAA for Sportstalk Radio

Kings report: Anti-arena group has signatures needed; Mayor says stench wafting off petitions

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by Ken Gimblin

SACRAMENTO–The anti arena group Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork or STOP says they now have enough signatures to put an initiative on the Sacramento June ballot to ask voters one question that Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and other major supporters were trying to prevent, “should (public funds) be used to build a new sports or entertainment facility.” If the count is right according to the Sacramento County of registrar of voters the initiative that all arena and Sacramento Kings supporters feared could be another road block for the new downtown arena plan.

Mayor Johnson has got this far in getting the NBA to keeping the Kings in Sacramento and not allowing the team to move to Seattle, second Chris Hansen who wanted to buy and move the team to Seattle and failed put $100,000 of his money towards a signature campaign under the care of a Los Angeles law firm where workers from STOP collected signatures on the petition to get the question on the ballot.

At first it looked as if STOP would have problems getting it to even pass when it was discovered that Hansen tried to undermine Sacramento by getting signatures to get the question on the ballot. Hansen was even fined for campaign violations $50,000 by the California Fair Political Practices. Then the validity of the signatures were called into question and it looked like a number of the signatures might not be real legitimate registered voters who signed.

Friday turns out after careful cross referencing the registrar’s office counted 22,498 signatures a razor thin margin over the minimum needed 22,026. Johnson has ordered Sacramento City Clerk Shirley Concolino to throw out some of the signatures saying that some of the signatures were erroneous, that some of the signatures are challenged and some believe that a lot of the signatures were not from registered voters in the county also it was pointed out that the names of the backers of the petition were left off the public notice in the June edition of the Sacramento Observer .

“Given the legal stench wafting off these petitions, we beleive it is critical for the city to protect the public by making sure that the flawed petitions are rejected” in a statement from The4000,a committee orgainization that Johnson had established and also is being directed by Kings president Chris Granger.

STOP has said that even though they finished one hurdle about the count being right they are prepared for a legal fight from Johnson and the city over the signatures. STOP lawyer Brad Hertz said that whatever the problems are with the regisrations there isn’t a major problem with those signatures and they will be counted, “We hit the mark and are very gratified, the city clerk still has to validate. We will see what happens there, we have to be prepared for some legal issues.” said STOP co-founder James Cathcart.

Concolino has until Monday January 28th to approve all the petitions and check the signatures. There is no doubt that Johnson will ask Concoline to cross check the signatures again for mistakes, dead people signing, non-registered signatures or false names. Concolino’s office has reportedly already cross referenced the signatures and there hasn’t been a report of misconduct or at least enough to withdrawl petitions so that the count would be reduced.

If the number is accurate and the petition count stands Johnson, the Kings, and supporters of the new downtown arena will have to change their approach and convince voters why public funds would be beneficial for Sacramento building a new sports facility. Most municipalities who want to use public funds to build new stadiums or arenas have a large sector of the community that do not want tax dollars spent on such projects. The Kings would have to almost bend over backwards to convince Sacramento County voters to get the new arena voted in with a question proposed like that on the ballot.

The Mayor’s foundation and legal team must now find a legal loop hole to stop the subsidy question from entering the ballot and again the clock is ticking for Johnson and his team to find a way to stop the question from entering the ballot. Hertz said that the voters have spoken and that all requirements have been met for legal compliance. Both sides have indicated that there will be a show down in the courts over this.

Ken Gimblin is covering the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors arena developments for Sportstalk radio

Kings report: Kings plan to make Cousins face of team;first franchise in sports to accept Bitcoin

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by Ken Gimblin

SACRAMENTO–DeMarcus Cousins came up through the ranks at the Sacramento Kings during his rookie season in 2011-12 often showing his growing pains with former Kings head coach Paul Westphal. On occasions at practice Cousins who may not have agreed to Westphal’s plays or the way he was addressed or the way he would address Westphal back. Cousins opened up the new year in 2012 on January 1st getting a one home game suspension from Westphal for “unwilling/unable to embrace traveling in the same direction as his team, it cannot be ignored indefinitely” Cousins asked to be traded to another team but that request was denied.

Westphal was fired from the team four days later on January 5, 2012 some at the time said it was a “either he goes or I go” situation between Westphal and Cousins. Westphal was replaced at that point by former Golden State Warrior head coach Keith Smart. The next season 2012-13 on December 22, 2012 Cousins was suspended indefinitely for “unprofessional behavior and conduct detrimental to the team” the suspension lasted only two days as Cousins was reinstated by the club on December 24, 2012.

This season 2013-14 under head coach Mike Malone, Cousins has shown he has grown up and there have been no reports of indifferences with he or Malone or the coaches and the Kings are glad that they stuck with Cousins saying with his great ability he will be the future and marquee of the organization especially after the new arena is up and running in downtown Sacramento in October of 2017. The Kings owner Vivek Ranadive says he has foresite for this team and sees Cousins leading the way and doing great things for the future of the club.

Cousins has been a far cry from those challenging first two years with the club where it was a wonder if he would be able to stay in Sacramento given all the troubles he had when he first broke into the NBA. Cousins image has also taken an upswing taking an interest in the community and donating $1 million to the families of the Sacramento community after signing a big contract at the beginning of this season.

What’s a bitcoin? The Kings who have started this week to accept bitcoin as regular currency for ticket payments are noted to be the first in professional sports to do so. Ranadive wants the Kings to be state of the art in accepting the crytocurrency “when I sold the NBA on keeping the team in Sacramento, my pitch included using the sports franchise as a social network to push the technology envelope. This is an example of that” said Ranadive.

There had been talk that if there would be some kind of currency change in the future whether it be the Amero or Bitcoin but with the Kings introducing accepting the coin this could be the start of the coin being accepted as mainstream currency as opposed to paper tickets or cash at Sleep Train Arena.

One Bitcoin is valued at $850 but the coin also brings some downsides as it is regarded as digital cash and it could be electronically erased. Also Wall Street says the economy is still shaky with some volatility particularly in the retail market where JC Penny just announced that it’s closing 33 stores and laying off 2000 employees as the tip of that ice berg and the current $850 price tag could drop. Outside of that Ranadive says the idea of bitcoin can be profitable for the team and user friendly for fans if used in a frequent and successful way that it was designed for. To see how Bitcoin succeeds time will tell but the Kings are accepting the coin now.

Ken Gimblin covers the Kings for Sportstalk radio