Category: Sacramento Kings

by Jerry Feitelberg

The NBA and its commissioner Adam Silver moved very swiftly to end Los Angeles Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling his ownership of the club. The NBA banned him for life and he cannot attend any games or be around the Clippers’ offices or practice facilities and cannot attend any Board of Governors meetings. In short, he is through and the NBA imposed a 2.5 million dollar fine.

What Sterling said was totally inappropriate and we live in the 21st century. Black athletes have come a long way since 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color line for baseball and , in effect, all sports. Many of us remember the days when black athletes had to play in segregated leagues. Satchell Paige, Willie Mays. Hank Aaron all played in the Negro Leagues. The only job that black basketball players could get was to play with the Harlem Globetrotters. Black athletes have shown the world that they can compete and win at the highest level of any sport.

In the mid 50’s the Boston Celtics started to bring in black players. Bill Russell was the most notable but he was followed by Sam Jones and K.C. Jones. NYU’s Tom Sanders became an important piece of the great run of championships that the Celtics enjoyed in the 50’s and 60’s. I believe the Celtics were the first team to utilize five black players on the court at the same time. The University of Texas at El Paso won an NCAA championship with all black players.

Other great black players include Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Magic Johnson, James Worthy and the list goes on and on.

Most owners want to get the best players because winning is what counts in pro sports. Winning improves attendance. When you sell your product to the people there is no room for racism. People of all ethnic backgrounds are entitled to buy a ticket and watch the product on the court. When your team goes on a run, fans generally high five the people sitting round them without regard to race or ethnic background.

There is no room in sports for an owner like Donald Sterling. He will, unfortunately,

profit handsomely when his team is sold. Sterling can run his real estate business

until he dies but the NBA and all other pro sports teams do not need him or anyone else that thinks like him.

Jerry Feitelberg is a talk show host on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

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Jerry Feitelberg
jyf1938@gmail.com

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–When I first started working with former late great Sacramento TV-radio personality Ken Gimblin was at the Oakland Coliseum during the great Haas Family A’s teams during the 80s. We were all younger of course and Ken always treated me with respect and we developed a good working relationship and he was a very good man.

I was very sadden to hear the news of his sudden passing last week on Mon 14th, and yes Ken 76 was a real veteran of the business and the Bay Area and Northern California sports, he worked in Sacramento in TV-radio and was a great reporter covering the recent arena developments of the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors.

Ken supported the Kings when they first moved to Sacramento in 1985 and he had covered the team and really went full tilt in covering the team when the new owners took over the Kings this past year when the NBA allowed the Kings to stay in Sacramento. Ken had an inside track on the Kings and the new owners and followed all the court judgements in allowing the team to start buidling the new arena in downtown Sacramento.

I have great memoiries of Ken and I will miss him sincerely. This week we were supposed meet with Ken and do a radio show in Old Sacramento and this was Ken’s town and he will be there in spirit and we will remember Ken with all the great stories and although the show will go on and I got my train ticket to go and I love to take a ride to Sacramento and Ken was the one who showed me how to take the Capital Corridor to downtown Sacramento.

It was Old Sacramento where we did our last radio show together and the last time we saw Ken, we will do the show again and Ken was great and we will remember him and his spirit and he loved the restaurant we will be doing the show from at Ten-22.

Warriors and Clippers series: These two teams are playing very even basketball, the Clippers need to win on Monday night at Staples or they’ll be down 2-0. The Warriors are a team that are not intimidated by anybody, they pass, score, rebound, well. Stephen Curry is a great leader, the Warriors have a lot assets, they have a lot weapons and so do the Clippers too.

With the Clippers Blake Griffin has been a great leader and the Warriors Stepen Curry is shooting the lights out of the ball this is a series that can go all the way. It’s unlikely that Golden State is going to sweep as these teams are evenly matched. However game two is a pivitol game, the Clippers have to win otherwise the Warriors confidence will grow and the Warriors head coach Mark Jackson is a very successful and good coach.

Curry he’s the guy now sometimes he throws the wild pass and he plays with a lot of passion and he wants to win every game. Curry goes out of the way for his teammates, he’s a great element for he Warriors and everybody loves him and he’s the key he’s the franchise for this basketball club and if he stays hot and he’s a guy who can destroy anybody.

Sharks-Kings series: The San Jose Sharks are incredible, the Sharks what they did in game one against the Kings is unforgettable down 2-0 and came back and won it with seven unanswered goals in a 7-2 win. We have talked about the Sharks and coming back like that down two goals in the Stanley Cup and you don’t see that too often and that’s what the late actor Humphrey Bogart used to say “that’s the stuff that dreams are made of.”

A game like that they have to build to it, they have to build your confidence and it doesn’t matter who you are in the NHL like long time veterans Joe Thornton or Patrick Marleau if your a veteran or a rookie in a game like that it has to build your confidence. You know in the playoffs you can come back after you’ve spotted the Kings two goals and then score seven and win it, that’s almost like in baseball losing the whole game and then hitting a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth to win which the Oakland A’s have done in recent years.

It’s the sign of a good team whenever you come back from behind like that in the playoffs and it’s a mark of a champion.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish voice of the Oakland A’s and does News and Commentary each week for Sportstalk radio

by David Zizmor’

OAKLAND–For the Warriors this past week they played in San Antonio the hottest team in the league and then turned around and played the Sacramento Kings on Friday night at the Coliseum Arena and held the Kings to 69 points. The Spurs have won 19 in a row and when the Warriors lost to the Spurs they weren’t playing with Andre Iguodala, Andrew Bogut, or David Lee all of whom were out with injuries.

Then you add in the fact that the Spurs are the hottest team in the NBA and the Warriors playing in the Alamodome is the hardest place to play in the NBA where they lost on 111-90 on Wednesday night. The Warriors haven’t won a regular season game there since 1996. It’s just a rough spot and the Warriors were going to have a rough time of it.

For the game against Sacramento it was back home for Golden State and they got their big man back on Friday night as Iguodala was back for that game. It was one of those cases where the Warriors had a really good game and when the Warriors are good their tough to beat. The Kings are already a bad team and when a bad team has a particularly bad game chances are they’re going to get steamrolled and the Warriors beat the Kings by 40 points 102-69.

This game was out of hand by the second quarter and you can even say by the end of the first quarter, the Kings couldn’t hit a shot. Part of it was the Warriors defense, part of it was just bad play by the Kings, also part of it was DeMarcus Cousins was probably the best player with Sacramento and he left the game with about a minute and a half in the game.

With Lee and Bogut out of this game the Kings attacked the middle and the Kings game plan just completely fell by the way side, the Kings were just completely discombobulated and they just didn’t know what to do. The Kings whole offensive game plan disintegrated and the Warriors were able to harrass them enough to keep them from getting any good shots whatsoever.

The Kings simply weren’t prepared and part of that is the Kings are just not a good team and they don’t particularly have good talent and part of it was the Warriors were playing very good defense the combination of the two put the Warriors ahead by about 15 in the first quarter and by 30 by the end of the second and by the middle of the third quarter they were playing the back up guys.

It gave some rest for the Warriors starters and Stephen Curry didn’t play that much, he got his 13 points and exited to have an nice easy night and it was a good chance for the Warriors to get themselves right and give them a little more confidence going into this final stretch here in the last couple of weeks in April.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk radio

by Ken Gimblin

SAN FRANCISCO–Former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos and former candidate for San Francisco mayor Quentin Kopp (now a San Mateo County judge) asked for the San Francisco Giants, Golden State Warriors, Former mayors of San Francisco Dianne Fienstein, Frank Jordan, Willie Brown, Gavin Newsom and current Mayor Ed Lee to join them in supporting Proposition B the height limitation measure for any development along the 7 1/2 mile waterfront.

Three big hopeful developers were on board the Warriors who want a new arena at Piers 30-32 plus a condo tower and hotel, the Giants who want to develop retail, condos, a hotel, a themed entertainment area and restaurants at the waterfront near lot A in the Giants current parking lot, and Forest City who currently owns property and a condo development that was formerly the Presido Public Health Hospital a veterans hospital on federal land at 15th and Lake Street in the City which is known today as the Presidio Landmark want to develop their other property at Pier 70 for retail and condo space.

Under Prop B development would be restricted to 40-105 feet in height unless voters vote in favor of a speciific project that would wave the height limitation. The city held an election last year on height restrictions Props B and C that were called the 8 Washington Condos and that was killed by the voters. The 8 Washington group wanted to develop at nearby Piers 30-32 new condos and hotels and after that election it’s going to be much harder to go to the voters and ask to lift the height restriction.

Lee is in a tough spot as the Yes on B campaign is working on him to endorse B and it would benefit San Francisco and that according to the Port Commission and the Giants in the long term and that the city would profit by $8.5 billion and $124 million for affordable housing fees. The Prop B measure made the ballot after more than double the required eligible ballots came in to put the measure on the ballot.

Acknowledging the momentum for Prop B and advised that Prop B will win Lee who at one time said the Warriors new arena would be a “legacy” to his administration has now turned around and said that he will not endorse Prop B nor would he campaign against it either because he doesn’t want to offend either side and that if he supported Prop B he would have well over 18,000 voters who got the measure on the ballot pleased that he’s with them on height limits.

If Lee was to stay in the pro delvelopment camp he would have such groups as the Sierra Club, Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods and a lot of voters who want to protect the waterfront who will more than likely come out against Lee in his re-election bid for Mayor. It has been said even from Mayor Lee’s stand point that Prop B will pass in June and that any development at the waterfront will more than likely have to be approved by the voters.

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

by Ken Gimblin

SACRAMENTO–With the last piece of the property puzzle solved by the Third Court of Appeals in Sacramento favoring the ruling that the Macy’s building at the eastern end of the downtown plaza will be sold for $4.35 million via eminent domain, building and property owners U.S. Bank certified owners and CalPERS will be forced to sell which paves the way for the Sacramento Kings to start making plans to build their brand new arena.

The Sacramento City Council will hold a vote detailing the blueprints and plans for the new building and the vote will be held on May 13. Sacramento Assistant City Manager John Dengberg was besides himself by the court decision and was relieved that if the appeals ruling had gone the wrong way it could have held the arena build hostage until the appeals process was solved which could have lasted months.

The higher court upheld the Sacramento Superior Court decision on eminent domain that ruled the certified owners and CalPERS to sell the building and construction for the new arena should start at the beginning of June with the demolition of the Macy’s building. For City officials it’s ka sara sara to some of the toughest parts of the court battles in making a dream come true for the Kings and the City, “it’s a huge deal, we’re very pleased” said Dengberg.

The new arena will be at the eastern part of the mall, the Macy’s building will be torn down and it will be turned into a Kings workout, training and player development center. The 17,000 seat arena will run the team $448 million in private and public funding. The City says that the money will come from the general fund for it’s share to the price tag of $258 million.

The City said they will recoup the money to pay back the fund by city owned parking lot fees and taxes on ticket sales made at all Kings games and all events at the new arena, “a lot has been accomplished in the last year we’re negotiating the final wrap ups” said Dengberg.

The issues that the city council will vote on on May 13th will include asking the Planning and Design Commission to review the layout and blueprints for the new arena and the mall, zoning changes that will allow the Kings to construct digital scoreboards at several of the major freeway exits in the city, the council will also vote on the overall terms of the deal for the financial funding portion on the city’s part hence the $258 million, the project will include the new arena, offices, retail, housing and hotels in the neigboring area just a block or more from the arena.

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