Category: Sacramento Kings

By George Devine, Sr.

DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay have made a big difference for the Kings this season. On this occasion their absence made a difference since neither played. But even with that, Sacramento came closer than expected in a 128-117 loss to Denver at Sleep Train Arena.

The Kings led in a close first period, 31-30, but the Nuggets moved ahead in the second, 35-28. The home team retained the advantage in the third, 34-30, but Ty Lawson broke up the party with 12 points in the quarter, and Sacramento lost it in the final frame, 30-24. High scorer for the Kings was Isaiah Thomas who scored 22 points, adding 5 rebounds and 8 assists. He was followed by Marcus Thornton with 19 points, Do McLemore with 18 and Jason Thompson who had 13 points and 10 boards.

For Denver, Ty Lawson scored 27 points and had 3 rebounds with 6 assists. Wilson Chandler had 20 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists; Randy Foye and Nate Robinson scored a dozen points apiece.

by Ken Gimblin

SACRAMENTO–Efforts to reach representatives of the two anti downtown arena groups Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork or STOP and Voters for a Fair Arena Deal were fruitless on Friday as Sacramento City Clerk Shirley Concolino said that the Sacramento Registrar’s office had kicked out more than 6,700 petitions that allow the voter to decide if public subsidies should be used to pay for any new sports or entertainment facilities in Sacramento.

According to Concolino on Friday the 6700 petitions in question were flawed that there were nine different versions of the petition, the petitions had wording that were different and non consistant with voter guidelines, the petitions also left out legal language pertaining to the subsidy issue and other specific issues that must be included for the petition to have been able to move forward.

Concolino said of the petitions that were rejected on Friday, “I’ve never seen a petition with so many flaws as this one.” The 6,700 rejected petitions spells trouble for STOP and Fair Arena as they claimed that they delivered 23,000 petitions that were all nice and tidey but now have no comment on the registrar’s decision. The petition drive was largely funded by Seattle hedge fund manager Chris Hansen whose bid to move the Sacramento Kings to Seattle was rejected by the NBA.

Hansen paid $100,000 for the campaign to have signatures question the public subsidies on the June ballot if taxpayers should foot the bill for new sports or entertainment facilities. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said that the petition effort by STOP, the Arena Deal, and Hansen was not worth the petitions it was written on saying of the drive that it was an “underhanded attempt to subvert and trick voters with misrepresentations, hidden money and misleading petition language.

STOP and Arena Deal have been critcial of the city’s plan to use $258 million in public subsidies to fund for the new arena. The Kings would pay the other part of the $450 million plus for the downtown arena. The Kings just this past week barrowed $35 million from Goldman Sachs to help purchase the Mall at downtown plaza.

The current owners from San Francisco JM a base development firm sold the mall to the Kings, the deal would give the Kings most of the downtown plaza property. The Kings are trying to get the Macy’s building near the Holiday Inn by eminent domain. The latest on that is CalPERS who owns the property is a willing partner and would sell their share. U.S.Bank who owns the other share is challenging the Kings and the City on eminent domain because the offer from the city and Kings is far below market value.

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

By George Devine, Sr.

It was never really much of a contest, as the Houston Rockets blew out the visiting Kings, 119-98, a mere 24 hours after Sacramento had done the same to the Pelicans in New Orleans. By the middle of the first period, the Rockets had taken a lead that they would never relinquish, but only expand.

Dwight Howard was the key to the home team’s success, and is already touted as the one who can make the difference in the Rockets’ potential title hopes in the NBA this season. He had 26 points and contributed 13 rebounds. James Harden was not far behind, with 24 points and 9 assists. The advantage for Houston was so pronounced that both leading scorers were able to sit for the final quarter.

For Sacramento, Isaiah Thomas took the lead with 20 points and 6 assists; Jason Thompson had 12 points and 98 boards. Coming off the bench, Derrick Williams scored 22 points and had 11 rebounds. The Kings had beaten Houston in a close game on New Year’s Eve, but a key difference in this one was the limited participation of Rudy Gay, who played only 5:59 and scored only 4 points, leaving the game with an injured Achilles tendon. He had scored a career-high 41 against New Orleans the previous evening.

By George Devine, Sr.

The Kings have now won two games in a row, after a dramatic win in New Orleans, beating the Pelicans by a final score of 114-97.

Rudy Gay, who has been scoring somewhere in the range of 20 points a game, has been ramping it up lately, and on this occasion matched his career high with 41. At halftime he had scored 19, equal to his total output in many a recent game. He was 5 of 8 from 3-point range, and also made a big difference with 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Also scoring high for Sacramento were Isaiah Thomas with 20 points, 4 blocks and 11 assists, and DeMarcus Cousins with 18 points and 11 boards. The Kings outrebounded the Pelicans 46-35 and 10 of those were by Quincy Acy.

Key scorers for New Orleans all came off the bench: Tyreke Davis with 17 and rookie center Jeff Withey with 14, in addition to starters Anthony Davis (165) and Brian Robert (15). 12 of Withey’s points came in the second period, in which the home team led 36-26. However, at halftime the Kings led 64-56 due in large measure to a 38-20 first quarter. The third frame commenced with a 17-4 run by the visitors, resulting in a 27-14 advantage for the period.

The Kings next travel to Houston to take on the Rockets on Wednesday, January 22.

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

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