Unbelievable! Amazing! Jaw-dropping! Spectacular! In sports writing, superlatives are greatly overused. Heck, even The Court Jester abuses the Queen’s English occasionally! In this case, however, I think not! After being down 58-37 at the half, being outshot from the floor 60.5 percent to 31.8 perccent in the first half and only scoring 12 points in the second quarter, it looked like another lackluster Kings performance would etch another loss in the standings Thursday evening. Not so fast, my pretty! After a day of showing Coach Paul Westphal the door, elevating assistant Keith Smart to the position full-time and holding a players-only film study session before the game, the Kings ca

Please don’t kill the messenger. Yes, the story is one you’ve read before. One you’ve read way too often this hoops season. The Sacramento Kings carry a lead into the final quarter and suddenly the offense stops moving and the team seemingly forgets it’s true mission: Beating a team they should beat on the home floor. After a back and forth battle, the Kings give another game away as the offense stalls and the players look like they abruptly forget how to execute the essentials as they lose to the visiting Milwaukee Bucks 84-79 on Thursday night. This was the first game for the team after Coach Westphal decided to start Samuel Dalembert instead of DeMarcus Cousins after the “choke sign

Tyreke Evans is the 2010 T-Mobile NBA Rookie of the Year, a very different award than when Kings Vice President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie and coach Paul Westphal played in the '70s. "It was the can and string Rookie of the Year when we played," Westphal said. Yes, the world is different. The basketball world is different, but the game remains very much the same.  Petrie actually won the award (sharing it in 1970 with Boston's Dave Cowens) when there was no marketing arm attached to such things. Both Petrie and Cowens progressed to have solid NBA careers, although Petrie's career was cut short by knee problems. The level of hype with winning the award then is nothing like i

After a historic season averaging 20.1 points, 5.3 rebounds 5.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game, Sacramento Kings guard Tyreke Evans will be named the 2009-10 NBA Rookie of the Year (ROY). The 20-year-old Chester, Pa. native became the first Kings player to win a postseason award since Bobby Jackson won the Sixth Man of the Year award in 2003 and the fifth rookie in franchise history to win the ROY award. Maurice Stokes of the Rochester Royals, Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas of the Cincinnati Royals and Phil Ford of the Kansas City Kings were the first four. Evans is the first of to win the award in the Sacramento era. He also became the fourth rookie to average 20 points, five rebound

While 16 teams battle to reach the NBA Finals, nine awards are handed out during the playoffs. So far, six awards have been given out, but fans of the Sacramento Kings, Golden State Warriors and Milwaukee Bucks ask the question: When is the Rookie of the Year (ROY) award going to be announced? When the award was given out last year, it was given to the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose one day before Game 3 at Chicago in the first round of the playoffs. Although ROY contenders Tyreke Evans of the Kings and Stephen Curry of the Warriors aren’t in the playoffs, Brandon Jennings’ Bucks have already played Game 3 in Milwaukee. Unlike Rose last year, Jennings didn’t get a trophy. This seemingly

At the end of every season, the NBA Rookie of the Year (ROY) Award is awarded to the best rookie of the season. Don Meineke was the first to win the Eddie Gottlieb Trophy in the 1952-53 season. Of the 56 ROYs, 21 basketball hall-of-famers, from Oscar Robertson to Michael Jordan, have emerged. More than 53 percent of retired ROYs were voted into the hall of fame. The next trophy could be coming to Sacramento as Kings guard Tyreke Evans tries to make history becoming the fourth rookie to average 20 points, five rebounds and five assists for a season. The first three were Robertson, Jordan and Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James. Portland Trail Blazers Television Analyst Mike Rice kn

While many sports fans were glued to their television sets to watch coverage of the NCAA basketball tournament, it was March Madness in Arco Arena on Friday as well. The Sacramento Kings battled the Milwaukee Bucks in exciting fashion, but, despite great effort by the Kings, they lost 114-108 in double overtime. The Kings and Bucks exchanged leads throughout the game, but late in the fourth quarter the score was 95-95. The atmosphere was electric during the final seconds as with fans chanting “DEFENSE, DEFENSE!!” Other fans yelled at players to make a 3-pointer for the win. Although the Kings fell short of a victory, loyal fans were proud of their efforts. “I’m impressed with their hust

 The Kings lost a game Friday night at Arco Arena. However, that was secondary to the loss of their rookie of the year candidate Tyreke Evans. Evans suffered a concussion and some facial lacerations during the fourth quarter of Sacramento's 114-108 double-overtime loss to the Milwaukee Bucks before a stunned crowd of 12,098. Evans went down during a wild scramble for a loose ball underneath the Kings basket with 27.3 remaining in regulation following a shot attempt by Kings forward Carl Landry. Evans remained on the floor after Landry was called for a foul. Evans eventually was helped back to the Kings bench for a brief period before being helped to the Kings locker room. Landry sai

All the talk of who should win the award, has made no sense to me. The 2010 Rookie of the Year conversation comes down to at most three possible players. Those involved in the race being: Brandon Jennings of Milwaukee, Tyreke Evans of Sacramento and Stephen Curry of Golden State. Let's first take a look at Brandon Jennings, the high school phenom who was regarded as the top high school guard two years ago and played last year in Italy. While his team has been playing the best out of the three players named, his game has faltered the last few weeks. Since February 1st, Jennings has shot 31% from the field, compared to 38% on the year, which still is not that great. And for an award that i