“Bigger than basketball.”
It’s a catchy phrase. One that has been used a lot by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and even made its way into LeBron James’ Decision, Part II.
But the Sacramento Kings ownership group is learning a harsh reality. In Sacramento, nothing is bigger than basketball.
Despite ownership’s record valuation of $535 million to purchase the team and nearly $500 million invested into a downtown arena and entertainment district, Kings fans are unhappy and the honeymoon period may be over.
They are unhappy because after years of horrible basketball, the Kings were winning under head coach Michael Malone. Before illness wiped out DeMarcus Cousins for 10 games, the team was 9-6, despite an extremely difficult early schedule. But a favorable December schedule had the Kings still in the race.
You can call Malone-ball plenty of things. Conservative? Yes. Grinder? Yes. Hard-nosed? Yes. Boring? Maybe.
You could also call it a winning style that perfectly fit the Sacramento Kings’ roster. The Kings were playing defense and growing as a unit. Playoffs were a stretch, but not out of the question.
What did Malone do to deserve the firing? He helped DeMarcus Cousins become a superstar. He took on Rudy Gay midway through last season and turned him into an All-Star contender. He fixed a broken locker room, changed the culture of a team and developed Ben McLemore.
The excitement of winning was back in Sacramento and Kings fans were willing to be patient because the ship was back on course.
A fan in the stands stopped me on Friday night and said, “I don’t care about style of play. We were winning, and that’s all that matters.”
We aren’t confusing Malone with Phil Jackson or Red Auerbach. But he was a second-year head coach developing an identity for a franchise known more for its relocation attempts than the play on the floor.
The truth is, Cousins, Gay, McLemore and Darren Collison were all having career years before the coach was let go on Dec. 14 and the team was just two games under .500.
And that is why Kings fans are upset. They don’t want another throwaway season. They don’t want to watch the lottery screw them over again or have to pray that a 20-year-old draft pick will help turn things around his rookie year.
It’s a good lesson to learn for an ownership group. Their wants and needs don’t have to match up perfectly with their fans, but they need a rational reason for blowing up a season that started with so much promise.
They can point to the hole in the ground in downtown Sacramento. They can talk about a jazz band or show bank account statements with much smaller numbers than 18 months ago. The group bought a basketball team. That basketball team came with an intelligent, passionate, engaged fanbase.
That fanbase understands that an NBA team develops over time. There are no quick fixes. They understand the life cycle of the league and were excited to be at the stage where you can see a team building toward something. And they know full well that coaching changes in the middle of a season represent a waiving of a white flag.
This is no disrespect to Tyrone Corbin. He has found himself in the middle of a storm, and he deserves better. Regardless of how the Kings finish this season, he is not part of the plan.
Fortunately for the franchise, it is in training mode for the first three seasons of new ownership. Management can take risks and make changes on a whim, because the team won’t be moving into a new building until October 2016.
Once the new house is built, this type of move can have a major impact on the bottom line. Nothing wears off the freshness of a new car faster than a head-on collision.
The Kings won’t admit it, but they made a mistake. They undervalued Michael Malone. They undervalued his impact on the team and his popularity amongst the fans.
Maybe the most important point is that they undervalued the effect winning has on a fanbase that has seen so much failure. The fans bought in when ownership said this season was about wins and losses. And now all they see are the losses.
When you own a basketball team, nothing is bigger than basketball. Not in Sacramento anyway.
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