Wow, I was really wrong on this one

So at the start of the NBA season, I defended my hometown team, the Sacramento Kings, saying they were being unfairly pegged to flounder (ESPN.com predicted a 23-59 record, for one.) I wrote that the Kings had some talent and weren't too far off on being a playoff team once more.

Looks like I missed on this one.

Sacramento is 15-55, has the worst record in the NBA and I'm starting to wonder if sports is really my thing any more. I stand by my assertion that the Kings have a lot of good young talent, between Kevin Martin, Spencer Hawes, Jason Thompson, Donte Greene, Andres Nocioni and Francisco Garcia. Still, I must admit the prototypical veteran core needed for success simply isn't there. I remember thinking Sacramento could easily withstand letting go of Mike Bibby, Ron Artest, Brad Miller, and John Salmons, but the team is starting to look like a stripped down Cadillac on cinder blocks in the middle of the ghetto. It ain't pretty to watch this team even from afar.

Thankfully, the season is drawing to a merciful close, the Kings have multiple picks in the first round of the June draft and they may well have the best chance of any lottery team to score the top pick. Plug a power forward and a decent point guard into this roster along with a veteran or two for the bench and a solid coach (Flip Saunders, perhaps?) and I don't think Sacramento is all that bad.

Then again, maybe I shouldn't make predictions for awhile.

Danny Ainge's deal with Satan must have expired...

...because it's now 2009 and ESPN.com is reporting that the Boston Celtics want to sign the Yoko Ono of basketball, Stephon Marbury (as in, he goes to your team and is a surefire bet to fuck shit up.)

What kind of parallel universe have we stepped into?

Let's fix the Knicks

Most NBA teams have a bad contract or two, a Brian Cardinal or a Kenny Thomas, someone who gets $6 or $7 million per season to sit at the end of the bench.

Well, there are most NBA teams, and then there are the New York Knicks.

Once a proud playoff team, the cheese slid off the cracker for Knicks' management somewhere in the past decade, as horrific contracts began being distributed like contraceptives (definitely blocking any chance for division titles.) Madison Square Garden became a boneyard where the Malik Roses and Stephon Marburys of the NBA could go to quietly die, the Knicks transforming into a traveling circus of financial insanity. They have the kind of payroll that would make MC Hammer look like Warren Buffett.

I did the math for seven of their worst contracts, and here's what I found:

$73.7 million.

No, that's not the gross GDP of Estonia. That's how much this season the Knicks collectively pay Eddy Curry, Jerome James, Jared Jeffries, Quentin Richardson, Zach Randolph, Rose and Marbury. Granted, Randolph is a prototypical power forward with major talent (along with an equally major attitude), and Richardson's statistics look far improved over last season, after just a few games. Otherwise, though, this bunch is about as formidable as a bunch of mothballed battleships.

Here's the salary breakdown for this Un-Magnificent Seven:

Curry, $9.7 million
James, $6.2 million
Jeffries, $6 million
Rose, $7.6 million
Richardson, $8.7 million
Randolph, $14.7 million
And the big winner, Marbury, currently inactive on New York's roster at a staggering $20.8 million plus change. At least that contract expires after this season.

Looking over the list, it's a veritable rogue's gallery. Of the talented players, big man Curry came from the Chicago Bulls with a known heart problem, Marbury had a long history of destroying teams with me-first point guard play, and Randolph was a pariah even on his previous squad of juvenile delinquents, the Portland Trail Blazers. Of the three, only Randolph is currently playing. Then there are the head scratcher deals, Jeffries, James, Rose. What those guys ever did to merit a collective $20 million is absolutely beyond me.

Now I realize this may all seem like beating a dead horse. The Knicks have sucked for the better part of a decade now, it seems. But I remember a different time for New York, back when I was growing up, when the Knicks were feared. I remember Pat Riley standing courtside in all his slicked-hair glory, Anthony Mason and John Starks inspiring my disdain every time they played the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals. My dad liked the Knicks, just as he liked the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons of the late 1980s, but I was a Michael Jordan fan. And the Knicks were thugs.

At some point, the Knicks became an embarrassment. Still, it's never too late to turn things around. And there actually is some promise. Next to all those overpaid veterans sits an impressive mix of discount-priced young talent, comprised of guys like David Lee, Nate Robinson and Wilson Chandler. Cut the veterans loose, get a star or two in there (Dwyane Wade? Chris Bosh? LeBron James?) and New York could once more be a playoff squad. The Knicks were great fifteen years ago when they had Patrick Ewing, a bunch of spare parts and attitude.

It's never too late to get some semblance of that back.

How I roll

So it is now October, which means that basketball season is shortly upon us, which means I will soon have many chances to write about my hometown team, the Sacramento Kings.

Some background: I am a 25-year-old, who grew up watching the likes of Lionel Simmons, Duane Causwell and Bobby Hurley play ball (in fact, the last guy lived down the street from one of my friends in 1994.) Essentially, I grew up watching terrible, terrible basketball, until about the time when I was 15 and the Kings traded for Chris Webber, drafted Jason Williams, signed Vlade Divac and suddenly became relevant.

Fast forward ten years. The renaissance has come and gone, and Sacramento is once again a lottery team. Times have been tough in recent years, yet I see the potential for good. The roster has undergone an overhaul, and young players like Jason Thompson, Donte Greene, Spencer Hawes, Francisco Garcia, Beno Udrih and Kevin Martin, form a promising core.

ESPN.com recently pegged the Kings to finish 23-59. While I'll admit Sacramento has needed a power forward ever since Webber got traded away, they really aren't too far off from returning to the playoffs.

Expect more posts on this topic...

Edit (11.5.08) -- Actually, 23-59 might be spot on. This season is barely a week old and my Kings are 0-4 and not looking good.

A Phillies-Rays World Series???

Man, it seems unbelievable, but I guess it could happen: The Philadelphia Phillies already beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series and is awaiting the winner of the Boston Red Sox-Tampa Bay Rays ALCS. Tampa, long since one of the shittiest, least-watched teams in the American League, holds a 3-1 advantage over Boston and can eliminate the Sox and advance to the World Series tonight. I haven't paid too close of attention, but would like the Rays to prevail, in part because a dude from my hometown, J.P. Howell, is one of their top relief pitchers. Granted, a Philadelphia-Tampa World Series would be something of a shit-fest (and each team will probably lose 90 games next year) but it's what I'm rooting for. Plus, how many titles can the Red Sox win all of a sudden? Just doesn't seem right.

Hello again

So it's been almost four months since I wrote anything here, to which I owe some explanation. Essentially, I am an all or nothing person. I want every post I write to be a masterpiece worthy of Esquire Magazine. If I feel I am falling short, I don't even try. Translation: I got held up on my first significant entry, which concerned my thoughts on the NBA Draft back in June, and I have not attempted anything further. This will change.

New goal: Post more often, forget Esquire.

It Begins

I was told tonight to start a blog and have been meaning to do so for some time now. I am a 24-year-old Bay Area resident with a background in journalism and aspirations toward writing more often.

This shall, ostensibly, be about sports...