Many people have mixed feelings about the new Sacramento Kings’ ownership, but you can’t dispute that principle owner Vivek Ranadive inherited a mess in 2013.
That doesn’t mean he hasn’t made mistakes because he has, but when NBA fans or media outlets attempt to bash Ranadive and compare him to the Maloofs, it’s really shameful.
Don’t forget who stepped up when it mattered. Ranadive and his team did, and now the city of Sacramento will enjoy the most technologically advanced arena in the world for many years to come.
Just ask Raiders fans what they are feeling right now. They have an owner who is embracing a potential move to Las Vegas and the Raider Nation is hoping anyone steps up to the plate and finds a way to keep the team in Oakland. Even at the expense of early mistakes on the personnel side for the first three years. If you lose your team, there is no going back. Plain and simple.
You can only get better and learn from your mistakes and that’s something Ranadive has accepted and has vowed to do.
I can’t justify his recent comments to USA Today concerning Geoff Petrie and his staff because it was out of line. With that said, justifying Petrie’s comment on Ranadive to Deadspin, (“a very arrogant and dismissive chap”) was also wrong and in my opinion juvenile.
Both men know better but they both chose to bring up something that was old news. It’s unacceptable due to all the positive momentum the Sacramento Kings’ franchise has created on and off the court in the past two months.
These are some of the recent comments Ranadive made to the Sacramento Bee and I don’t know what to think of them.
“I wanted to sincerely apologize to Geoff Petrie and his team,” the owner began, speaking softly. “I meant no disrespect. I have the utmost respect for what they have done for the franchise and what they have accomplished. I fully understand that it’s a huge privilege to own a basketball team, and as chairman of the ownership, the buck stops with me. I accept responsibility for everything. All the mistakes are my mistakes.”
I say that because it could’ve easily been his PR team telling him to do it just to clean up the mess he created a week ago. It can also mean that he is owning up to it and being transparent.
It might not matter right now because the purpose of this column is to stress the fact that without Ranadive, the city of Sacramento wouldn’t be celebrating a second historic night on October 27th of this new era of Sacramento Proud. The first was the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Golden 1 Center on September 30th.
That’s a fact not an opinion.
Silicon Valley is an area of high technological and scientific development, and home to many of the world’s largest high-tech corporations and thousands of startup companies. The NBA is a different world and that’s something Ranadive will continue to learn with time and experience.
I sometimes read really harsh things about Ranadive from fans and even some media outlets, and it strikes me as bewilderment to the core because people act like they were expecting perfection from Ranadive.
I know if I owned a team, I would really be involved and in the beginning maybe too involved. It’s a difficult thing to stay away from, especially if you invested more than half a billion dollars to purchase the team.
Have some patience with Ranadive. He’s made mistakes but the Sacramento Kings are here to stay, and the same can’t be said about the Oakland Raiders.
Just put things in perspective. Would you rather see mistakes made in Sacramento or in Seattle? Mark Cuban’s first few years as the Dallas Mavericks’ owner were very controversial.
It ended up working out for them didn’t it? All I’m saying is don’t be so fast to judge and trust the process because I truly believe that the Sacramento Kings are heading in the right direction.
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