To hate or not to hate, to be a fan or not to be a fan.  This is a question we've all asked ourselves, and I'm sure the vast majority reading this post have answered yes to both of those questions.  To hate the Lakers?  Hell yes.  To be a fan (and to love) the Kings?  Hell-****ing-Yes.

But are there actions we take as fans that jeopardize our fandom?  If not to ourselves but to others?

Let me set the stage for you...

A couple years ago (maybe a year, more or less,  my memory is failing me) a new co-worker began working at my San Luis Obispo office.  And guess what?  He was an avid Kings fan and already frequented the pages of StR!  Amazing...this city is flooded with Laker fans and finally someone who appreciates my Kings wall-calendar.

However, I received some distressing news last night while some co-workers and I were having drinks at a local bar.  My Kings-fan co-worker owns a signed Kobe Bryant plaque!

"You gotta give up for him...he's pretty amazing" he said.  I countered with, "Ya, pretty amazing at rape.  He's so good he's convinced all of LA he's innocent!"

"It was on sale for $80!  And it's him as #8, so you know it will be worth a lot of money once he gets into the Hall of Fame.  Then I'll sell it"

Maybe it's just me, but when I see a signed Kobe plaque for $80 my first thought is usually "What a piece of shit" not "Holy shit!  What an amazing investment opportunity!"

I couldn't stand having something like that in my house and it led me to question his fanhood.  Am I going too far?  What is the verdict StR?  I will leave it up to you...

There are certain moments in our lives, for me when my parents told me they were getting a divorce, when we realize that life isn't perfect. I was born an optimist: I was going to marry the first girl I dated and fell in love with, I was going to go to Stanford, I was going to be a millionaire. As I've gone through life, events have changed my view that everything in life was always going to turn out great. If the Kings leave Sacramento it will be one of those moments that shapes me for the rest of my life.

Continue reading this post »

Hello Pistons Fans

I hail from California and am a Kings fan.  I recently wrote a webapp where you can place a marker of your favorite NBA team.  It'd be awesome if you guys could go in and place Pistons markers where you're from and represent Detroit.  I'm posting this on all the SBN NBA blogs so hopefully we'll get a cool distribution throughout the world.

Quick instructions:

- Zoom in / out with the middle mouse wheel OR by clicking the Zoom In / Zoom Out buttons.

- Select your team from the drop-down menu on the top right and then hit place marker.  Then click to place.  Careful, you can only place once!

- If you make a mistake and aren't ready to place your marker, push Esc to cancel.

- As you zoom out, markers will become invisible and you'll only see whatever team is most prominent in a given area.

- You can pick from three map views using the top left drop-down menu.

LINK HERE: lodisacfan's NBA ap.

Hello Raptors Fans

I hail from California and am a Kings fan.  I recently wrote a webapp where you can place a marker of your favorite NBA team.  It'd be awesome if you guys could go in and place Raptors markers where you're from and represent Toronto.  I'm posting this on all the SBN NBA blogs so hopefully we'll get a cool distribution throughout the world.

Quick instructions:

- Zoom in / out with the middle mouse wheel OR by clicking the Zoom In / Zoom Out buttons.

- Select your team from the drop-down menu on the top right and then hit place marker.  Then click to place.  Careful, you can only place once!

- If you make a mistake and aren't ready to place your marker, push Esc to cancel.

- As you zoom out, markers will become invisible and you'll only see whatever team is most prominent in a given area.

- You can pick from three map views using the top left drop-down menu.

LINK HERE: lodisacfan's NBA ap.

Hello Sixers Fans

I hail from California and am a Kings fan.  I recently wrote a webapp where you can place a marker of your favorite NBA team.  It'd be awesome if you guys could go in and place Sixers markers where you're from and represent Philadelphia.  I'm posting this on all the SBN NBA blogs so hopefully we'll get a cool distribution throughout the world.

Quick instructions:

- Zoom in / out with the middle mouse wheel OR by clicking the Zoom In / Zoom Out buttons.

- Select your team from the drop-down menu on the top right and then hit place marker.  Then click to place.  Careful, you can only place once!

- If you make a mistake and aren't ready to place your marker, push Esc to cancel.

- As you zoom out, markers will become invisible and you'll only see whatever team is most prominent in a given area.

- You can pick from three map views using the top left drop-down menu.

LINK HERE: lodisacfan's NBA ap.

P.s. Enjoy Hawes!  He has a lot of room to grow still I think and I'll be pulling for him when you're playing anyone but us.

Hello Knicks Fans

I hail from California and am a Kings fan.  I recently wrote a webapp where you can place a marker of your favorite NBA team.  It'd be awesome if you guys could go in and place Knicks markers where you're from and represent New York.  I'm posting this on all the SBN NBA blogs so hopefully we'll get a cool distribution throughout the world.

Quick instructions:

- Zoom in / out with the middle mouse wheel OR by clicking the Zoom In / Zoom Out buttons.

- Select your team from the drop-down menu on the top right and then hit place marker.  Then click to place.  Careful, you can only place once!

- If you make a mistake and aren't ready to place your marker, push Esc to cancel.

- As you zoom out, markers will become invisible and you'll only see whatever team is most prominent in a given area.

- You can pick from three map views using the top left drop-down menu.

LINK HERE: lodisacfan's NBA ap.

Good luck with the draft and free agency!

Hello Celtics Fans

I hail from California and am a Kings fan.  I recently wrote a webapp where you can place a marker of your favorite NBA team.  It'd be awesome if you guys could go in and place Celtics markers where you're from and represent Boston.  I'm posting this on all the SBN NBA blogs so hopefully we'll get a cool distribution throughout the world.

Quick instructions:

- Zoom in / out with the middle mouse wheel OR by clicking the Zoom In / Zoom Out buttons.

- Select your team from the drop-down menu on the top right and then hit place marker.  Then click to place.  Careful, you can only place once!

- If you make a mistake and aren't ready to place your marker, push Esc to cancel.

- As you zoom out, markers will become invisible and you'll only see whatever team is most prominent in a given area.

- You can pick from three map views using the top left drop-down menu.

LINK HERE: lodisacfan's NBA ap.

Hey All

Guess what?  This post has absolutely nothing to do with the draft OR free agency!  I'm guessing that's a welcome surprise at this point.  On to the meat!

A while back someone posted a google map link where all of us could place a marker on the map and then we could see where the StR community resided around the world.  I thought that was pretty awesome and have thought about it from time to time.

So I thought it would be cool to do this for all of the blogs that we are brothers with.  I finally decided to get off my lazy ass and do it last weekend and now I've been fine tuning for a little bit (I'm a software developer by trade).  I figured the perfect time to go live was the day of the draft since we'll be getting the most readership.

Without further ado, check it out and place a Kings marker where you're at, you can zoom in pretty far.

Quick instructions:

- Zoom in / out with the middle mouse wheel

- Select your team from the drop-down menu on the top right and then hit place marker.  Then click to place.  Careful, you can only place once!

- If you make a mistake and aren't ready to place your marker, push Esc to cancel.

- As you zoom out, markers will become invisible and you'll only see whatever team is most prominent in a given area.

- You can pick from three map views using the top left drop-down menu.

LINK HERE: lodisacfan's NBA ap.

Ps. I'm going to post this on all the other blogs as well, but I figured I should give StR a headstart!  Also, if you have a good name for the site paste it in the comments, I'm terrible with those things.

1. John Wall

2. Derrick Favors

3. DeMarcus Cousins

4. Evan Turner

5. Al-Farouq Aminu

6. Wesley Johnson

7. Greg Monroe

8. Cole Aldrich

9. Ed Davis

10. Ekpe Udoh

11. Patrick Patterson

12. Hassan Whiteside

13. Eric Bledsoe

14. Donatas Montie- Montie - not gonna be drafted by us

15. Xavier Henry

Continue reading this post »

Based on this morning's Amick story (detailing the locker room grumblings over an inconsistent line-up) and the trading of Kevin Martin, now seems like an ideal time to post the Westphal Approval Rating's second edition.  

Last time (Jan 26 '10) Coach Westphal garnered a hefty 92% approval from us.  Since that time the team has gone 3-9 (now sitting at 18-38 overall), with high points coming in back to back road wins over New York and Detroit, and the unquestioned low coming on a 32 point shellacking at Golden State, with Martin getting traded at halftime.

As Ziller detailed in his excellent piece this morning, the Kings do indeed have the most inconsistent rotation in the league, with our most-used lineup playing a paltry 100 minutes together over the entire season.  That is pretty mind-blowing to me, as Memphis' starting 5 has played over 1,000 together.

So, here is the question.

This is an idea I am stealing from Niners Nation.  Fooch (niners nation's version of Ziller) posted a Mike Singletary and Jimmy Raye approval rating each week and I really thought it was interesting to see how it progressed throughout the season.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that Paul's approval rating before our recent road trip was approximately 90-95%, correct me if I'm making a bad assumption there.

So, in the first of bi-weekly approval ratings that I will post (If people think this is an interesting idea) here it is!

Ok, I know this post has absolutely nothing to do with the Kings.  But as we give thanks for Kevin Martin's Friday return and feel sorry for Clipper fan, I think it's far more important to be looking at Haiti.

Continue reading this post »

I've been curious about this for a few weeks now, so I figured I would post a poll and find the answer.  Everyone in Sacramento is absolutely in love with Tyreke Evans.  However, Brandon Jennings is looking pretty damn good as well.  And of course let's not forget Blake Griffin, and just for the hell of it, Ricky Rubio.

I've included the top 10 picks of our community draft board.  Our picks are actually looking pretty solid, except for the glaring omission of Johnny Flynn in the top 10.  However, these picks were made before a lot of the workouts and information gathering occurred.

Sactown Royalty's Community Draft Board '09:

1. Blake Griffin

1. Ricky Rubio

3. Brandon Jennings

4. Tyreke Evans

5. Hasheem Thabeet

6. Stephen Curry

7. Ty Lawson

8. James Harden

9. Jrue Holiday

10. Demar DeRozan

So...Let's wind back the clock and pretend we miraculously won the Draft Lottery.  Knowing what you know now, who would you select as the #1 Overall choice? 

Hi all

I currently live in San Luis Obispo, which means I don't get a chance to go to many games.  However, fortune has smiled upon me and I will be in the Northern California area this weekend, which means a good opportunity to see K-Mart, Tyreke, and co. agains the Warriors.  However, I'm finding it hard to get cheap tickets. 

I need 3 (which is really making it hard) of the cheapest tickets available.  Does anyone have any advice on good places to look that I might have missed?  craigslist only has listings of pairs, altho one that is $200 for 3...a little out of my price range.  kings.com rapes w/ service charges.  Stubhub only has $100+ tickets, same /w ticketsnow.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!  I am in need!  Help me Kings fans!

Thanks

Craig

So I'm sitting at my desk, and I realized something kind of incredible..

1998 is the year that the Kings started their ascent towards greatness.  Which two teams had the top picks that year?  Oh, that's right, it was #1 Clippers and #2 Grizzlies, just like this year.  Very interesting... They are projected as of right now to take a big guy and then a point guard, just like the Clips and Griz did that year (Olowokandi and Bibby).  Another amazing coincidence is that there is a white point guard out of the university of Florida available and he will seem like a reach at our draft spot.

So obviously, we need to draft Calathes at #4,  trade K-Mart for Amare this summer, and then in two years trade Calathes for Rubio.. (or maybe Jennings, since he was supposed to go to U of A like Bibby).

READY... GO

This is my first fanpost...sorry I haven't done it sooner, but I am lazy you all are much more Kings knowledgable than I.  But anyway, on to the post...

Technically, it'd be better for us if the Lakers won this series, as we'd have a higher draft pick with the Rockets pick this year.  However, my utter hatred for all things Lakers leads me to root fanatically for Ron and the Rockets.  I even donned my #93 Sacramento jersey today in support.  Just curious if anyone can shake their Laker hatred to root for a higher draft pick..

On a side note.. Has anyone ever played w/ the Lakers in a video game.  I've been playing NBA Lives and Nba 2ks for a long time, and I have never once played with Kobe or the Lakers.  NEVER!