Take A Second And Enjoy What The Kings Are Doing
By Anthony Bertacchi / KHTK Sports 1140
Expectations matter in sports. It's the thing that sustains sports TV shows and talk-radio. It fuels the media and allows fans to yell at the Miami Heat in 2010 because they didn't win a championship. They could grab their pitchforks and Molotov Cocktails when LeBron James lost in the NBA Finals after he "took his talents to South Beach" to team up with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh. It's also why we celebrate the Oakland A's and Kansas City Royals coming out of nowhere to compete.
Fans are emotional creatures; everyone understands that. However, not every sport gives fans the same amount of hope when the year begins. For instance, in Major League Baseball every season starts with hope. Every fan base is convinced that, with a little bit of luck, their team can make it to the World Series. It doesn't matter if you're a fan of the New York Yankees or the Pittsburgh Pirates. Anything is possible. We saw it in full effect this year as the aforementioned Royals made it all the way to game seven of the World Series. Forget about the result, the fact that they got that far means something.
However, in the NBA, each fan's level of hope going into a season isn't equal. If you're a fan of the Philadelphia 76ers, you knew this season was going to be rough. You knew that the best-case scenario would be a surprise win against the San Antonio Spurs. It may come when Gregg Popovich decides to rest his entire team, but hey, a win is a win, right? We knew the Golden State Warriors would be good, we knew the Chicago Bulls would continue to be good and we knew that the Miami Heat would regress as soon as LeBron James decided he was "coming home" in every other commercial you see. In the NBA, you usually have an idea of which teams will be good and which teams will stink.
So, if we understand that premise, then what did you have as the best-case scenario for the Sacramento Kings win total at the end of the year? 35 wins? Maybe more, but considering the lack of success the team has had over the past two seasons, I doubt you thought that a playoff push was in the cards. Unless your name is LeBron James or Allen Iverson you can't take a team to the finals seemingly by yourself. You don't take a team from average to elite overnight. It takes time for chemistry to develop with a team. The best collection of chemistry in the NBA resides in San Antonio. Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Gregg Popovich have been together since the 2002-2003 season. We haven't even seen Rudy Gay play 82 games with the Kings yet.
Think about this for a second; if you were told back in September that the Kings would be 11-11 at this point in the season you'd take it, right? Actually you may jump for joy if you mix in the fact that DeMarcus Cousins has been out for the last seven games and counting with viral meningitis. Whether it was inactivity or suspensions, Cousins didn't play in 11 games last season. Do you know what the Kings' record was in that time? The team went a whopping 0-11. Now, all of a sudden, the 11-11 start looks a lot better, doesn't it?
Also, on the bright side, the fortunes of the Kings look a lot brighter than the dumpster fires such as the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons. Their best-case scenario is to get whomever Kentucky or Kansas spits out in the upcoming draft. Yet, after years of heartbreak and worrying you want your feel good moments again. You want those cowbells and deafening chants to mean something again. It's been a long time since you felt the euphoria of winning on a daily basis.
Yes, the duo of DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay make the team better, but the fact that they're in the Western Conference messes up the feel good emotions. Have you seen the teams they have in the West? Right now the sixth place team in the West (The Spurs) would be tied for first in the Eastern Conference. Never mind what the Warriors are doing without David Lee or the inevitable run the Oklahoma City Thunder are going to go on in a few weeks once their starts are 100%.
The 5-1 start looked promising and because of it, you rearranged your expectations, but it was still only six games into an 82 game season. That's the NFL equivalent of a good Week 1 win and a lead in the first quarter. The team hasn't won more than 38 games since the 2007-08 season and has only won 28 games each of the last two years. Check back at the All-Star break and see where they're at. Until then, enjoy the success the team is having. After all, it's been a while since we've felt this good about our team. You might as well enjoy it while it's happening.
More Kings Stories: