Tag: Sacramento Kings

Kings Score Big Over Clippers

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By Tony Renteria

Sacramento, CA–The Hometown Sacramento Kings continued the pre seaon by A convincing win over the visiting Los Angles Clippers, 99-88. The Kings were led by a very aggressive DeMarcus Cousins who Kings with 31 points on 11-18 shooting from the field.

The Clippers limped into the game with out All Stars Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. Sacramento Native Matt Barnes was also out of this game. With out the leadership of Paul and the Interior Power of Griffin, Cousins worked his way close to the basket and scored seemingly at will during the first half.

The Clippers were lead by Jamal Crawford and his 25 points.

This game puts both teams at 2-1 for the pre season. The Clippers head to Phoenix to play the Suns tomorrow While the Kings Host the same Suns on Thursday.

Kings arena: public subsidy losing support as voters want to withdraw signatures

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by Ken Gimblin
SACRAMENTO–The anti Sacramento arena group Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed To Pork or STOP have admitted that of the over 22,000 signatures to put a ballot measure asking voters should the city use public subsidies for any new sports facilities and this would include the new Kings arena project at the cost of $258 million are not sure of those signatures whose are legitimate.
Stop’s spokesman John Hyde said of the signatures, “we really have no idea who these people are” and admitted that some of the forms that STOP had signed might have been submitted by people who never signed STOP’s petition in the first place. If it turns out to be so this will further damage STOP’s credibility as they were involved with Seattle hedge fund manager Chris Hansen who lost his bid to buy and move the Kings out of Sacramento to Seattle and now there’s questions as to the signatures of the petitions that their holding.
Hansen was fined for missing the registration deadline of filing the petitions for the ballot measure and had to pay a $50,000 fine to the department of elections. Hansen has since disavowed his involvement with the petition campaign despite sources saying Hansen had paid a Los Angeles law firm Loeb and Loeb to organize and represent the campaign.
Upon learning of Hansen’s dealings voters who signed the petition are now moving to have their names removed from the forms according the Joshua Wood of DowntownArena.org. Withdraw forms were submitted to the city clerk’s office. The city clerk is going through some 1,500 signatures to see if they are valid if proven to be valid it would increase the withdraw volume up to 3,100.
Wood said that the great number of withdraws are unprecedented and that it’s a reflection of Hansen’s involvement with the signature campaign and then backing out and saying he wasn’t a part of it and apologizing for being involved in the campaign. Hansen thought the better of it after the NBA said they were not please with his actions and that his credibility with the league was near shot over this in any future bid to get an NBA team.
The city council agreed to a subsidy on public funds back in March by barrowing off any future sales tax that will pay back the public funds from arena parking and city public parking, also from ticket and concession sales made at the new downtown arena.
Ken Gimblin is covering the Sacramento Kings with Charlie O and Tony Renteria for Sportstalk radio

Curry’s 23 points leads Warriors over Kings, 94-81

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By Gabe Schapiro

In the second game of the preseason schedule, the Golden State Warriors (1-1) picked up a convincing victory, 94-81, over the Sacramento Kings (0-1) at Oracle Arena. While the outcomes obviously don’t count, the preseason remains very important for figuring out depth charts and building team chemistry. And of course, above all else it’s just about getting into game shape without getting hurt.

The Kings got off to a fast start in this one, hitting a groove early and nailing 62% of their shots in the first quarter. The Warriors looked a bit rusty, and trailed by as many as nine points. Stephen Curry kept them within striking distance, however, with seven of the teams 21 points, to go along with three assists through one. The highlight of the quarter was an impressive lob from Curry just past half-court to a streaking Andre Iguodala for a thunderous slam dunk. Although it’s just the preseason that was likely a glimpse of what we may be seeing quite often this season.

The momentum swung Golden State’s way in the second, capturing their first lead of the game with eight minutes remaining in the first half. David Lee, Klay Thompson, and Marreese Speights came alive, contributing eight, eight, and six points respectively by halftime. Lee also had a team high eight rebounds.

The Kings made a late charge, however, and retook a 44-39 lead heading into the locker rooms. Isaiah Thomas led the way for Sacramento with nine points and six assists.

By the third quarter both sides were predominantly playing their reserve players. Not to say that isn’t important as we get our first extended looks at the Warriors remolded bench, which will be one of their keys to success this season.

The two teams traded leads several times throughout the quarter, with Golden State mostly dominating play by the end of it. They out-scored the Kings 23-18, and outshot them .500-to-.313. Ultimately they erased their half time deficit, and headed into the fourth all tied up at 62-62.

The Warriors continued their strong play, and started running away with the game in the fourth quarter. In the last few minutes they emptied their bench, and eased their way to the win.

Possibly the biggest thing to keep an eye on through the preseason is how the competition for the fifth starting spot shakes out. Curry, Iguodala, Lee, and Andrew Bogut are pretty well entrenched as starters, leaving the final spot up for grabs between Harrison Barnes and Klay Thompson. Barnes started tonight, but struggled early, failing to record a point, and was never re-inserted into the game after playing the first six minutes. Thompson, on the flip side played nearly 30 minutes on the night, and finished second on the team with 17 points to go along with four rebounds, two blocked shots, and a steal.

Curry had a nice outing, contributing a game high 23 points. Lee had a double-double, 14 points and 13 rebounds. Iguodala filled up the stat sheet, adding seven points, three rebounds, three assists, and a whopping five steals.

The preseasons schedule continues tomorrow in Utah at 6:00 PM.

 

Game Notes: Ognjen Kuzmic made his Warriors debut, playing five minutes…Speights had six points, three rebounds, and three blocks in 14 minutes off the bench…Seth Curry scored his first points as a Warrior, a buzzer-beating three pointer to end the game

Kings Sign Cousins to Long-term Deal

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By Charlie O. Mallonee

The Sacramento Kings have made a major investment in their future by signing center DeMarcus Cousins to a reported four-year $62-million contract extension. The exact contract figures were not released per Kings policy.

The very talented Cousins has at times shown that he can be a dominate force who can take control of game and lead a team to victory. He has also shown that he can be inconsistent and moody at times. The Kings are betting on the fact that with maturity Cousins’ strengths will become the dominate factor in his play.

No one can deny that Cousins is an impressive player with the potential to become an All-Star caliber player. The 6-11 center has averaged 16.3 points (.448 FG%, .704 FT%), 9.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.3 steals and 29.8 minutes per game in 220 games over his three seasons with the Kings. Cousins has missed just two games due to injury over that time period.

The Kings management is happy to have Cousins signed, sealed and delivered for the long-term. This contract makes the statement that management believes Cousins is a major building block to the team’s future success on the floor.
“DeMarcus is a unique talent with skills rarely witnessed at the center position,” said D’Alessandro. “His combination of size, quickness and athleticism lends an invaluable dimension to our team now and in seasons to come. We look forward to watching DeMarcus continue his development into one of the best players in the game.”

“I am excited to continue to be a part of the Kings under the leadership of Vivek Ranadivé and the Sacramento ownership group,” said Cousins. “I’m also thankful to work alongside Pete D’Alessandro and Coach Michael Malone. I’m anxious to get back on the court with my teammates and can’t wait to play in front of the best fans in professional sports. I plan on showing them my appreciation this season and beyond.”

With Cousins in the fold, the Kings can now concentrate on evaluating the talent at training camp in order fill the 2013-14 roster. The Kings first preseason game is Monday, October 7th at Golden State.

Kings Arena: Battle getting started between union and non-union contractors

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By Ken Gimblin

SACRAMENTO–Non Union construction workers aren’t buying that they’ll get a fair shot at working on the new Kings arena. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson last Thursday addressed the media, fans, politicians, community groups, and contractors that union contractors will be getting top bidding for working on the Kings new arena. That’s when the fireworks began when Kevin Dayton a Roseville political consultant took the microphone from the podium where Johnson had been speaking and said that there will be a fight that non union workers should have a shot at working on the new arena.

The project estimated at $448 million had Dayton and Eric Christen who heads a San Diego coalition for Fair employment in construction who is in favor of non-union contractors and who has worked with Dayton said there is enough work for both union and non-union workers on the project that keeping non-union contractors out is discrimination. Johnson during his speech is leaning towards using union contractors something that Christen said was not fair to non union workers “our guys are furious about this, opponents of taxpayer funding for this arena just found an aggressive new ally today.” said Christen

The Mayor introduced the “community workforce and training agreement” which was signed by lead contractor Turner Construction and the Sacramento-Sierra Building and Construction trades council. The part that boiled the non-union contractors in the agreement was that there will be a no strike clause and that an estimated 3,500 jobs were promised to be union. Also union or non-union contractors would receive union scale and benefits. The agreement also spells out that 60-70 percent of the workers must be from the Sacramento area.

Kings president Chris Granger assured the crowd that the new arena will be up and ready by 2016 one year before the proposed 2017 target date. Granger was excited that the building would be ready one year earlier this “will provide us with great comfort and certainty” said Granger.

Chris Mullin signed as team advisor: Basketball Hall of Famer Chris Mullin said he was excited about being part of putting a winning team together again as the Kings owner Vivek Ranadive will make Muillin his principal advisor. Trusting the NBA veteran and his managerial experience also a huge amount of his playing experience and success Ranadive has the full confidence that Mullin can spot top notch talent that would help the Kings move to being one of the top tier teams in the NBA, “I’m especially grateful for the unique opportunity to work in close proximity, with a world class ownership group led by Vivek Ranadive and the talented group of individuals assembled in our front office.” said Mullin.

Mullin brings a lot of qualifications to the job, a five time NBA All-Star in 16 seasons with the Warriors and Pacers, during his career he averaged 18.2 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 3.5 assists in 986 games. Mullin is a gold medal winner, winning two in each of the 1984 and 1992 Olympics, in 1985 Mullin won the John Wooden Award for most outstanding college player. It was during that time when he and Patrick Ewing were the two top prospects out of the college ranks. Mullin was selected out of St.John’s as a seventh pick by Golden State and Ewing was selected by the New York Knicks.

In his retirement days he worked in the Golden State front office as executive vice president of operations in 2004, Mullin worked at the Warriors for five seasons. Mullin worked with current Kings General Manager Pete D’Alessandro who worked at Golden State from 2004-08 as an assistant General Manager.

Ken Gimblin is covering the Kings for Sportstalk Radio