lifetime given the current political climate with the 99%er's vs. 1%ers. The Maloofs are classic Robber Barons who have swept into town and wrung all value from their asset, emptied money from the locals, and are now secretively scheming to leave behind a wasteland of devalued real estate and one tattered hulk of a building. This is the perfect time to get even instead of or along with getting mad. Any number of prominent or merely evident signs of protest would work, from not attending games to attending games in with sloganeering on signs and T-Shirts to wearing costumes like The Grim Reaper (as he somberly moves Scythe in hand to the Maloofs sitting courtside and points a pale boney finger at them indicating their time has come) or Snidely Whiplash as he broadly twirls the tips of his oily moustache and doffs his tophat to The Boys. We'll see just how committed they are to Sacto.

Poll

What kind of Kings fan are you?

25%

I will no longer attend at PBP

11 votes

13%

I will attend as usual and wear regular clothing

6 votes

16%

I will attend in protest and show it

7 votes

44%

I'll watch on tv either at home or in public

19 votes

43 votes | Poll has closed

You would probably have to get them locally produced since it would take too long to have them done online and shipped through CafePress or Custom Link. I was going to do that but then the logistics got in the way of my vitriol. Yes, you may appropriate my idea and make it yours. Another design could be a headstone with "Sacramento Kings" as the deceased and the dates "b. 1985 - d. 2012/13". And I have no idea if any of these would be legally actionable by the Maloofs or the NBA.

This blog can continue with its present name: Sactown being the locus of the blogger and most bloggees. Royalty being a reference to the new Kings moniker. Unbelievably convenient. Perhaps a wink from the Maloofs toward the Royalists for their steadfast support? Do I smell a conspiracy? Is the management not fessing up? Why not change the name more appropriately fitted to current sentiments?

Here are other blog names to consider:

Sactown Rabble--in reference to the opposite social end of royalty. Aren't we now the disposessed?

Sacto Outcasts--ditto

Purple Passion--trying to be positive

Sac Sovereignty--stretching it

Reluctant Royalists--why fake it??

Alas poor Yorick, I knew him... I haven't posted on this site for several months. Before the devolution of the Kings' fandom, brought on seemingly overnight by the "Anaheim Affair", the tenor and tone of this site was that of a jingoist party organ -- the kind one might find in, say, a former Communist regime, a cult, almost any religion (or cult),Ayn Rand clubs,and the Tea Party.

Any opinion that did not hew to the partisan feelings of the gendarme were summarily dismissed or disregarded with a loud harrumph. To question the composition of the team, the selection of the coach, or the intent of the ownership, one's intelligence, astuteness, or sanity were assaulted with the possible coup de grace being banishment from the pages of Sactown.

Now that the Kings are quite obviously skedaddling to a more profitable (at least t.v.-wise) market, I think it's important to review just what is happening here. Although a sports franchise has a unique relationship with the community where it resides, carrying the name of the town, serving as the putative representative of the community, it still is in fact a business. The Maloofs, for all their foibles and follies, are after all the owners of this business.

I am no apologist or fan of the Brothers Maloof(Joe and Gavin). I always perceived them to be arrogant, glad-handing opportunists, intent on seducing the community with their grandstanding magnanimity replete with "giving back" photo opps. Their cloying stunts for attention, ala the champagne and burgers commercial, made them seem less like accomplished and confident businessmen than desperate upstarts clutching at anything for fame or notoriety. They recently made joint cameo appearances on the The Wives of Beverly Hills, a show in which their sister Adrienne appears. In that episode, the camera panned to the silent, standing together mute on some tiki torch lit patio, like a SoCal Romulus and Remus, where the "Wives" had gathered with their spouses to fake a "fun" soiree only to later peck and cackle at one another in the obviously staged kerfuffle typical of these dreary shows. The boys stood grinning widely as if gleeful at yet another chance to shine in some kind of light, even if it was their sister's--sort of.

As for the running of the Kings as a team and a franchise, I cannot unequivocally say that I believe the Maloofs were intent on moving the team from the beginning, or intent on sacking the franchise by trading all the best and better players to milk the money stream. A close review of the team's roster over the years certainly points to an attempt after 2002 to "lighten" the payroll by trading most of the Bench Mob. The Webber injury certainly forced their hand with regard to resigning him -- a move with which I cannot disagree. But from that point forward the Maloofs seemed intent on patching the team so they could limp into the playoffs which might have been financially sound in the near term, but not in the long-term. Even the Lakers needed to retool and suffer through lean years between Showtime and Kobe and Moby (Shak). I think the game (running an NBA franchise) just as it got away from greg Lukenbill and Jim Thomas. Remember Jim Thomas negotiated the loan from the City for which the Maloofs are liable. What is clear to me, though, is that the Maloofs.

Although the Kings are undoubtedly leaving, they are not disappearing. Those who wish to can renain fans and supporters. Others can find other different teams on which to pin their vicarious aspirations. Taking your children to see a live NBA game is as simple as driving an hour or driving six. Take your pick.

Sactown Royalty will probably cease to exist at least so titled, and many readers may choose to devote their time and passion to another team or another sport.  Some might just go fetal and need intervention.  Whatever the outcome, life will go on in greater Sactown without the Kings.  I am old enough to remember the town without them. It wasn't so bad.