Let’s think back to the years prior to 2002. Owners Joe and Gavin Maloof along with GM Geoff Petrie had assembled a quality roster fit to dethrone the Lakers. Peja Stojakovic had been drafted in 1996 and would prove to be one of the best shooters in the game. Then there were trades for Vlade Divac, Chris Webber and Doug Christie to give the roster reliable veterans along with tough, physical play. Webber would go on to have a 5 year stretch where his numbers and play rivaled Tim Duncan and Kevin Garnett. Divac was regarded as the best passing big man in the league and had a solid 15-18 ft jumper range. And Christie had consecutive years of being named to the NBA all defensive team. They earned a playoff berth in the strike shortened 1999 season and were one play away from upsetting the defending Western Conference Champion Utah Jazz. The Kings were the talk of the league and Sacramento finally had something to root for. Unfortunately the buzz was killed with back to back playoff exits at the hands of those hated Lakers. Something needed to change. Luckily it was not Chris Webber, who almost left via free agency. He decided to stay in a Kings uniform. Instead the Kings traded fan favorite Jason Williams to Vancouver for Mike Bibby. Along with a quality bench, Bibby and the Kings had the roster needed to contend for a championship, and an NBA best 61 wins in 2002.
The Kings had home court advantage throughout the playoffs that season and as fate would have it, hosted the 2 time defending champion Lakers in the conference finals. Everyone in Sacramento was looking forward to this. However, the Kings failed to win games 1 and 7 on their own floor. It was complete heartbreak and the city of Sacramento was so quiet and somber, you could hear Jack Nicholson laughing all the way from L.A. This is where I pause to let Kings fans voice their opinions and excuses to why the Kings lost or better yet, why the Lakers escaped…..
Ok that’s long enough. Now let me tell you why the Kings deserved to lose. First, you work hard all year long to have the best record and earn the home court advantage throughout the playoffs, accumulate a regular season home record of 36-5 yet can’t win games 1 or 7 at home. This means that you had 4 home games vs. the Lakers in the playoffs and could only win half of them. Who could forget game 4, Robert Horry’s 3 point buzzer beater to tie the series at 2 games each, only after the Kings blew a 24 point lead in the 1st half? And what about game 7 when the Kings, again at home, shot a pathetic 16-30 or 53% from the free throw line? Who would have thought Shaq would shoot a better free throw percentage, 73%, than the Kings. Doug Christie and Peja Stojakovic each had 3-point attempts to win the game in the final seconds of regulation. Doug hit nothing but backboard, Peja hit nothing but air. The Lakers advanced and went on to sweep the Nets and 3 peat, as Phil Jackson’s teams seem to do.
What if… What if either Christie’s or Stojakovic’s shot went in? What if the Kings shot 60% percent from the free throw line, at home, instead of 53%? What if the Kings held on to an almost insurmountable 24 point lead in game 4? What if the Kings did what almost all teams with home court advantage in a 7-game series do? It could have been them defeating the Nets in the Finals and earning Sacramento’s 1st championship. Possible headlines in the days that follow, Bibby’s MVP performance puts the Kings on top of the NBA. Cow Town wears the NBA Crown. Shaq, tired of Kobe, traded to Dallas for Steve Nash. Yes, that all could have been very possible. Shaq and Kobe’s bickering were easy to look past when winning, but with a loss to the rival Kings, it would have been easy to see a break-up of the team at the end of the 2002 season instead of at the end of the 2004 season. Mark Cuban always had an eye for Shaq’s dominant presence in the middle and as we found out, was willing to let Nash go. Shaq for Nash and another player could easily have happened. And the Kings in 2003, with the Lakers and Mavericks regrouping, would have had only the San Antonio Spurs in their way. A Spurs/Kings matchup in the playoffs would have been a coin toss. And if the Kings were the defending champs, they would have had the confidence and poise needed for a grueling series. Throw in the addition of Keon Clark off the bench and the Kings could have had the formula to end up back in the finals, again vs. the Nets. The result probably would have been back-to-back Championships, putting them on the verge of becoming a dynasty, solidifying Sacramento’s future in the NBA.
So what really happened? The Kings front office panicked and grew impatient. Gone were Keon Clark, Hedo Turkoglu and Scot Pollard, much needed size and balance to match up with the other big men in the West. That resulted in back-to-back exits in the conference semis to the Mavs and Timberwolves. Suddenly, the championship window had closed. Webber and Vlade were shipped out and inside of 4 years, the Kings went from knocking on the penthouse to planting the outhouse, not to mention repeated lottery selections. And now whenever the used-to-be hated Lakers do come to town, Arco Arena is filled by a lot more Lakers fans than Kings fans. The Kings are on their way to another lottery pick and on their way to southern California. The Maloofs will have a quicker trip to their private suite at their Palms Hotel in Las Vegas, and the Kings will go down with the Trail Blazers, the Timberwolves, the Suns and others in the last decade to top out in the conference finals, only to free fall to the cellar of the standings. However, Portland, Minneapolis and Phoenix still have their franchise while Sacramento will count down the days to their franchise relocating to southern California, becoming friendly neighbors of the team that contributed to the process of their move. And who benefits the most? Blake Griffin, because his club will finally have a team to pick on in the area. Long live the Anaheim Royals and their anticipated rivalry with the Los Angeles Clippers.
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