With the
Sacramento Kings headed to a game 7 versus the Minnesota Timberwolves,
I was thinking of how bad the Sacramento teams had been up until
Webber, Divac, Stojakovic, and Adelman arrived in 1998. I started
watching the Kings from the mid 86-87 season and on and off throughout
the years.
Back then Reggie Theus was "The Man", also called a ball-hog by
teammates. But he did score points on a team that scored very little. I
remember when they went to the run-and-shoot and set a three-point
record or two, whilst still managing to lose 50+ games a season. I
remember that season they only won a single road game.
I remember when they had the first pick in the draft with four strong
candidates and they ended picking the only one that fans hated, Pervis
Ellison who was already injured with foot problems that he never
recovered from. Or the year they had a record four first-round draft
picks and got Lionel Simmons (The L-Train), Travis Mays, Duane
Causwell, and Anthony Bonner. Only the L-Train had any sort of career.
Still, the Kings have had good draft picks that they haven't been able
to keep. With that in mind I'm going to pick my favorite draft pick
teams. I'll keep this restricted to players that I saw playing for the
Kings (i.e. since 1986) up until The New Era with Webber and the rest
arrived.
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Our first team
are composed of first round draft picks. (C) Joe Kleine.
The Big White Guy may not be the best Kings center but I like him. (PF)
Brian Grant. Definitely could see that he was going to be really good
but he didn't want to play with the Kings. LaSalle Thompson gets
honorable mention. (SF) Otis Thorpe. This is a deep position and I
could have picked Corliss Williamson, Walt Williams, Billy Owens, or
Lionel Simmons. But Thorpe was a banger and had a Power Forward
mentality. (PG) Kenny Smith. A bit undersized but a good Point Guard.
(SG) Harold Pressley. Today he'd be more of a sixth-man/energy sort of
guy. Just gave it his all. I remember when he was wearing the Hannibal
Lecter mask to protect his broken nose.
The second team is composed of second or later round draft picks,
though the NBA hasn't done more than two rounds for a few years now.
(C) Jabari Smith. Slim pickings, but he is a center if a bit
underweight. (PF) Lawrence Funderburke. More of a Small Forward in
terms of size but had Power Forward skills. Too bad you also need size
for that postion. (SF) Eddie Johnson. A good scorer, even when he was
with the Kings. (PG) Tyus Edny. Undersized but fast. (SG) Vinny Del
Negro. I'm not sure if he was a Shooting Guard or Point Guard. But with
Edny at PG we have Vinny D at SG.
So those are my two teams. First team is obviously much better than the
second team but I like both teams. Not that many of the players were
all that happy playing for the Kings, but I and many other Sacramentans
remember these players fondly, if only for the lost potential.
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