John Justo headline-18381 2009-11-28T08:51:58Z 2009-11-28T08:51:58Z <p>As a sports fan watching your favorite teams throughout the years, don't you ever get that excitement and sense that you are witnessing something special?&nbsp; You savor every moment, whether you watch a win on the tube, or take in the sounds and roars of the crowds live&nbsp;at the game.&nbsp; You follow the personalities and drama unfold through every highlight, lowlight, and newspaper article.&nbsp; I felt that way&nbsp;in the middle of the 1998-1999 season, when&nbsp;Kings&nbsp;GM Geoff Petrie assembled the greatest nucleus&nbsp;to ever&nbsp;don&nbsp;Sacramento Kings&nbsp;jerseys and take the league&nbsp;by storm&nbsp;for the next&nbsp;6&nbsp;seasons.&nbsp; Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, J-Will,&nbsp;Peja&nbsp;Stojakovic, you know the names.&nbsp; They&nbsp;are etched in every Sacramento fan's memory bank for all&nbsp;eternity.</p> <p>Fast forward to this 2009-2010 season. New coach (Paul Westphal, the 4th coach in 5 years), new players (over half the players on this season's roster were not in a Kings uniform last season), a new philosophy and direction. Geoff Petrie and his crew took their magic eraser and essentially started all over, trying to forget the past four years of declining seasons and wins, with the low point being last season's campaign in which the team won a paltry 17 wins.</p> <p>The question is: Is the direction an upward swing?&nbsp; Before I answer this question, I want to preface my answer by stating that I am a die-hard Kings fan.&nbsp; That being said, I stay on the bandwagon both through good times and bad, but don't sugarcoat and have blinders on when my favorite team is stinking up the joint.&nbsp; Last year was unwatchable.&nbsp; The team was in shambles from the top down.&nbsp; Petrie, who has been labeled a genius around the league for his draft track record in finding young talent, assembled a roster whose talent was questionable.&nbsp; The team decided to fire Coach Reggie&nbsp;Theus in the middle of the season, only to replace him with Coach Kenny Natt, who fared even worse&nbsp;during&nbsp;his brief&nbsp;interim stint.&nbsp; The game play on the court was lackluster in effort, uninspired, and just plain boring.&nbsp; The team last year lost many fans that were on hanging by a thread. They&nbsp;showed as much by their unwillingness to support the product on the court by not renewing their season tickets or not deciding to&nbsp;take their families to watch an occassional game at Arco.</p> <p>For all the negative bullets I cited, I must give kudos to the Kings for recognizing the issues of the team as they&nbsp;addressed them in a fashion that has yielded positive results on the court up to this point.&nbsp; Coach Westphal has implemented his system of basketball to his team and infused enthusiasm, direction, and leadership.&nbsp; The guy can coach.&nbsp; Period.&nbsp;</p> <p>Geoff Petrie did away with the borderline players on the last year's roster, kept the promising talent he drafted the past years (Top Scorer Kevin Martin, Power Forward Jason Thompson, SF Donte Greene, and Center Spencer Hawes), and added, in my opinion, the top candidate for Rookie of the Year thus far, Tyreke Evans. He also drafted fellow rookies Omri Casspi and Jon Brockman to the fold, to add athleticism and toughness to the team, characteristics lacking previously.&nbsp; Sprinkle a few cagey vets in the fold for good measure in Sean May,&nbsp;Andres Nocioni, Kenny Thomas,&nbsp;and Ime Udoka, and you have a face lift you can be proud of going forward.</p> <p>Where does this leave us fans in the big scheme of things?&nbsp; The upside of this current roster has serious potential.&nbsp; It is evident by watching a handful of home games live this year at Arco in how well they play thus far, holding court 6-2.&nbsp; This team defends (yes, I said it... DEFENDS!), passes, plays as a team, rebounds, and plays HARD from the tip-off until the end of the game.&nbsp; The passion is evident, and the crowds I experienced at Arco feed off that.&nbsp; The games at Arco are fun again!&nbsp; They have made a believer in me, who, after nearly chucking my purple and black Kings colors forever after last year's abysmal season, find optimisim in following this new band of young talent.&nbsp; Don't believe me?&nbsp; Before you pony up some hard earned dollars to watch them&nbsp;live, dip your big toe in the water and watch a game or two on TV.&nbsp; If you haven't watched a game since last season, I guarantee you'll see a significant change.&nbsp;</p> <p>I make no bold statements in that the Kings are going to be contenders in the forseeable future, let alone make the playoffs with the stacked Western conference.&nbsp; Make no mistake, the Kings will still have some growing pains to smooth out before this will be a reality.&nbsp; The fun part of being a fan is, when they are back in the thick of things, competing for the title once again,&nbsp;you&nbsp;were&nbsp;with them during these rough patches on the way to the top.&nbsp; If you fell off, come right on back.&nbsp; I have a seat right next to me on the bandwagon.&nbsp; Its filling up fast.</p> John Justo 2009-11-28T08:51:58Z