Vivek Ranadivé isn’t a rookie in the NBA anymore.
The Silicon Valley mogul is entering his second year as majority owner of the Sacramento Kings. Ranadivé admits that he still has more to learn as he begins his sophomore campaign at the top of the Kings’ hierarchy, but he also isn’t shying away from raising expectations for this year’s team.
“Last year, when the season started, I said that it wasn’t going to be about wins and losses,” Ranadivé said yesterday at the Kings annual media day festivities. “When I came here, we bought the team and there was disfunction in the locker room. There wasn’t mutual respect. The arena was literally falling apart.
“The roof was falling down so we brought in a new team, we restored stability, restored respect,” Ranadivé added. “We put in a system, we put in a strong culture. But this year, let’s be clear – it is about wins and losses.”
When asked about his expectations for the victory column, the Kings majority owner declined to attach a specific number. All he would say is that he wants to see significant improvement from a team that just won 28 games a season ago.
“Well, clearly we have to do a lot better than we did last year,” Ranadivé said. “But beyond that, I don’t want to make a commitment.”
Ranadivé thinks that the franchise made steady progress this offseason toward becoming better this season than last. The Kings’ summer league championship in Las Vegas and Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins’ participation in USA’s FIBA World Cup victory were both moments he characterized as “steps in the right direction” for the franchise.
“They worked with some great players, with a great coach,” Ranadivé said of Cousins and Gay’s Team USA experience. “They competed at the highest levels. So first of all, they’re coming home with a gold medal, (they’re coming back knowing) what it takes to win, what it takes to compete at that level both on the court, off the court. I think the discipline, the culture, just putting the team first and doing what it takes to win (are what they bring back to Sacramento).”
The Kings majority owner claims to also be pleased with the way the roster stands today. As they tip off training camp, Ranadivé believes that the players they have fit in with their vision of Kings basketball.
“I think it’s a great roster, a great group of players, all healthy and it fits in with our philosophy of ball movement, positionless basketball,” the 56-year-old chairman of the Kings said. “Good defense, but fast offense so we’re excited to start training camp.”
Ranadivé says he’s “very pleased” with what Kings general manager Pete D’Alessandro and his staff have done up to this point. When it comes to the direction of the franchise, the Kings majority owner suggests that everyone is on the same page.
“They are all one heartbeat,” Ranadivé said of D’Alessandro, Kings head coach Michael Malone and the rest of the basketball operations team. “So everybody’s working together. We all stick with one voice. We have differences in opinion, which we should. But at the end of the day, we speak with one voice and I believe we have a fantastic staff.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
