Sacramento Kings: An Opportunity at Foot

A logical fallacy that a lot of sports fans make is that sports is finite. Sports in general are similar to life. But in a much more contained sense and obviously there are many differences.

I'm not really big into writing existentialist ideas regarding sports especially when I am not even sure what I am saying is correct, but it just seemed like a good time to write this.

People assume that because things happened a certain way before that they will happen again. But it's hardly the case. Events in sports are shaped by a series of opportunities, and there are times when those opportunities are seized, and many other times when they are not.

In the case of the Sacramento Kings in the early 2000's, they were many opportunities seized. And with most opportunities, there is almost always a sort of risk.

The Kings traded the cornerstone of their franchise, Mitch Richmond, for a troubled player in Chris Webber that many assumed had never met his potential and was an underachiever. Webber nearly retired after he had been traded to Sacramento. But he didn't.

Sacramento signed a rundown old post player in Vlade Divac who many thought his best years were well behind him. Vlade was a two-time All-Star with the Kings, and revitalized his career.

Doug Christie was thought to be the odd-man-out in Toronto and was dealt for Corliss Williamson as a way to appease the disgruntled Christie. He was a fan favorite and the perfect backcourt companion to Mike Bibby.

Bibby was also a question mark, as the Kings traded their loved but plagued playmaker Jason Williams for him. J-Will was one of the catalysts who breathed life into a team thought to be perennial losers just before the turn of the decade.

Geoff Petrie signed relatively unknown players in Scot Pollard, Bobby Jackson, and Maurice Evans. And drafted an unknown player in Hidayet Turkoglu. Petrie also acquired players that many thought were fading into obscurity like Jon Barry, Jim Jackson, and Damon Jones.

The point of all of this is through a series of well timed and executed acquisitions the Kings built a contender that even at its prime could not top the juggernaut know as the Lakers.

The Kings had one true opportunity to prove how good they really were. But they failed. They could not get over the hump. It was an opportunity lost.

An opportunity that perhaps the Sacramento will never have again.

What opportunity the Kings do have is a chance to build a good team around one of the best young players in the league in Tyreke Evans. Along with some other solid role players in Omri Casspi, Beno Udrih, and Jon Brockman.

There are some big question marks as well like Jason Thompson, Spencer Hawes, Donte Greene, and Kevin Martin. We all know about how good Martin is and what he is capable of but the question remains as to if he really fits with this team and where it's going.

Hawes and Thompson are just struggling to find some consistency of any kind and Greene is an intriguing case. He has all the intangibles to be a really great player, its just a matter of how or if he can pull them all together.

To make a very long educated guess short, the Kings have some nice pieces to build around, it's just a matter of what opportunities are created and if they are able to seize them. There is nothing certain about the Kings future. And it doesn't help that they are located in one of the least desirable cities in the league.

There is always the chance that things will fall into place like they did in the past decade. But it is not something to dwell on or even consider realistically happening. The only thing we as fans can do is wait and hope. Whatever happens will happen.