Can Petrie be charged with sports franchise malpractice?

Can team officials be charged with sports franchise malpractice?

Because that's exactly what should happen to the Kings' Geoff Petrie.

What he's done to this franchise over the page few years is a downright embarrassment.  A team that a decade ago prided itself on passing, ball movement, and team play has become the NBA's poster child for selfishness. 

And you can lay the blame at the feet of Petrie.

For some some reason, he fell in love with gunners. 

Tyreke Evans.   Aaron Brooks.  Marcus Thornton.  DeMarcus Cousins.  Jimmer Fredette.

None of them has ever shown the slightest interest in sharing the ball, but Petrie thought it was a brilliant idea to collect them all and shove them in front of a coach with no clue how to tame them.

That coach - Keith Smart - is not going to turn things around.  He is overmatched as a strategist and motivator.  Yet Petrie decided to hand him a contract extension during the offseason.

Petrie has been living off a few clever moves from more than 12 years ago.  But he is no longer considered an upper-echelon front-office guy.

He still hasn't found a small forward for the team, despite years of nothing at that position.  His acquisition of John Salmons last year was one of the worst personnel moves in NBA history.  And don't get me started on Travis Outlaw.

 The point-guard position is still weak, despite my soft spot for Isaiah Thomas.  Nobody on the team is capable of running  a simple pick-and-roll and setting up a teammate.

Cousins is considered a bright spot, but if the first few games are any indication, he is still a ticking time bomb, supremely moody and seemingly incapable of playing the game without making surly faces at every perceived slight.   

It's sad.  It's pathetic.  And it's time to point the finger at the man who is most responsible for this disaster.

Mr. Petrie, come take a bow.

Five Downright Undeniable Truths About the Kings right now

Five things I know for sure right now about the Sacramento Kings:

1.  The Kings will never get to the playoffs with Tyreke Evans as their point guard.  Sorry, folks, just don't see it happening.  He's a fullback masquerading as a basketball player imitating a point guard.  And he has spurts of being spectacular, especially when his feet aren't aching.  But I just don't see him as the guy who's taking the team to the next level - not if he's the man running the offense.  I still think he's a great trade chip in a mega-trade for a great point guard, but I doubt the franchise has the guts to pull the trigger on a deal.

2. Funding the new arena by privatizing city parking lots is a stupendously bad idea.  Paul Clegg's blog http://gameto100.com/?p=977#storylink=scwidget tells the ugly truth.  Not sure why a simple $5 dollar surcharge on every ticket was ignored as a solution, but this parking fiasco will come back to bite KJ in the butt.

3. Geoff Petrie is an awful general manager and has been living off a few good deals and signings made a decade ago.  Sad but true.  Some awful decisions of late (trading for Salmons and signing Outlaw to name a couple) put him in the bottom rung of NBA brains.  He's become a non-entity around the league.  

4. DeMarcus Cousins is going to be a star and I've been impressed with his tenacity and hustle, but he's going to have spend a solid summer working on footwork and jump hooks in order to overcome his lack of jumping ability.  Cousins is consistently stuffed when trying to work inside because he has no clue about how to maneuver against more athletic big men.

5. It's more fun to root for likable players.  Rookie Isaiah Thomas may never be an elite player or even a starter, but his smile, verve, aggressiveness and poise make him a fan favorite.  And he passes the ball, too.  Selfish players are not easy to like, unless they are stone-cold superstars.  The Kings have too many stone-cold selfish stiffs.

Kings fans deserve better than this sad, pathetic franchise

Take this team and shove it.

That should be the attitude of Kings fans across Sacramento.

And those sentiments should be directed toward the unholy trio of Gavin and Joe Maloof, and their mild-mannered butler Geoff Petrie.

There are no more excuses for this paltry and pathetic assemblage of talent.  High draft picks, salary cap room, and a reported "genius" in the front office have landed the team in the cellar again.

It's embarassing.  It's unacceptable.  And nobody is screaming about it.  Are the Maloofs raising holy hell?  Are they holding Petrie accountable for this disaster? Or do they care anymore? Maybe they're just counting the days until the moving trucks arrive.

The Kings are a boarded-up bank repo.  Once grand and now in awful disrepair.

It's a shame.  The franchise with the most loyal fanbase in the NBA has put together an incredibly unlikeable team.  Selfish, immature, seemingly incapable of arousing even a hint of teamwork.

The worst part?  There's probably nothing that can be done.  Petrie still thinks he's sitting on a gold mine of talent.  There seems to be no pressure to make any big moves.

And the Maloofs, the league's former golden boys, just sit silently by, staring at their empty wallets, becoming increasing irrelevant with each passing minute.

John Salmons? Worst. Move. Ever.

It's 2 p.m. on draft day and I'm hallucinating.

Somebody just tweeted that the Kings acquired John Salmons from the Bucks in a swap of draft choices. And that Beno was gone.

Jokesters, those twitter folks.

See, nobody in his right mind thinks that adding another selfish shoot-first player with a bloated contract to the Kings is a good idea.

Right?  Right?

RIGHT?

Now things might change.  Maybe Geoff Petrie has some great move from 1998 up his sleeve, but this is it.

It's 10:30 at night and my nightmare has not subsided. We really did trade for the most sullen player in the NBA.

But there's a bright side:

The Kings drafted Jimmer Fredette.

Only maybe it ain't so bright, because the Kings have seemingly decided to give him the keys to the franchise without a learner's permit.  He will be running the team this season, whether he's ready or not.

You can't blame the Maloofs.  They want to sell tickets.  But they are making Jimmer the new face of the franchise.  In fact, he's the third different face of the franchise in three years, an NBA record.

Will he be good?  Who the hell knows?  We thought Bobby Hurley was gonna be good.

Meanwhile, if the Kings had only stood pat, they would have been in position to snare Brandon Knight, who dropped to 7 and was there for the taking.

Even scarier is that right now the team has no point guards to back him up.  As in zero.  Beno would have been nice to keep.  He had his best year ever and brought a certain level of maturity to floor.

Instead, we get the brooding and immensely enigmatic John Salmons, who has to be dancing a jig about returning to Sacramento.  Just a horrible move.  It makes no sense on any level.

Who is running this asylum?  The Maloofs?  Petrie?  Deranged elves?

Can anyone say the Kings are better with Jimmer and Salmons than Jimmer and Beno?  Or Brandon Knight and Beno?  Or Tony Parker and Richard Jefferson?  Just baffling.

Petrie needs a break from this trade stuff.  He needs a break from basketball.  And the Maloofs, who have him bent over and awaiting their commands.

The Sacramento fans deserve better than a trade for an unlikable retread from five years ago.

They should have just drafted Jimmer with the 7 and spared us this ridiculousness.  But the Kings were afraid of looking foolish by drafting him so high.  So they traded down to look more basketball brainy and instead made them look even more foolish.

Petrie better have some answers... some deals... some great ideas... because draft day was a mess.

To be continued...

WikiLeaks reveals Top Secret Behind-the-Scenes memos from the Kings organization (including latest memo on DeMarcus)

Lost among the thousands and thousands of confidential State Department memos released by WikiLeaks on Sunday was a slew of memos from the upper echelon of the Sacramento Kings organization.

They are revealing and sometimes embarrassing, but we are doling them out as a public service.

Nov 1, 2010
Inter-office Memo
To: Paul Westphal
From: Geoff Petrie

Hi Paul. Just wondering when you might be inclined to install an offense. I was peaking in at practice the other day and saw a lot of the fellas standing around and snacking. Any chance you could brief me on the progress.

Nov. 2, 2010
Inter-office Memo
To: Geoff Petrie
From: Paul Westphal

Thanks for spying on us, Mr. Busy Body. That was our offense. It's complicated, though. We do a lot of decoy stuff and many of the players say they enjoy watching my main man Tyreke just do his thing. You don't want me to start messing with our Rookie of the Year, do you?

Nov. 10, 2010
Inter-office Memo
To: Grant Napear
From: Gavin and Joe Maloof

Grant, we want to make sure you have the game plan for the new season. DeMarcus Cousins needs to be positioned as the team stud. Forget about the his immaturity, lack of jumping ability, and complete indifference on defense. Go nuts every time he touches the ball. Every time. Do you understand? Feel free to mix in plenty of that catchphrase of yours, "If you don't like DeMarcus Cousins, you're an inbred hillbilly" -- or whatever it is. We don't listen to you that much.

Nov. 16, 2010
Inter-office Memo
To: Gavin and Joe Maloof
From: Geoff Petrie

Hi boys. Just wanted to update you on our coach. I'm not so sure we made the right call on this guy. He seems to lack a little bit in the teaching department. And the strategy department. And the game-management department. And the ability to relate-to-his-players department. I was wondering if we could possibly eat his salary and hire a real coach.

Nov. 17, 2010
Inter-office Memo
To: Geoff Petrie
From: Joe and Gavin Maloof

That was a joke, right? We can barely afford the insurance payments on our matching lime green Lamborghinis. I suggest you suck it up and give the guy some coaching of your own. P.S. When did you become such a whiner?

Nov. 23, 2010
Inter-office Memo
To: Geoff Petrie
From: Paul Westphal

Hi Geoff. I was wondering if it's too late to add to those giant banners of DeMarcus and Tyreke on the side of the arena. Some of the players are asking why they aren't pictured. I agree. Luther Head and Pooh Jeter have scheduled photo sessions with the team photographer. I think it will exemplify our new team philosophy. By the way, I've come up with slogans for each of them: "Get Head" and "Smells Like Pooh." Whaddya think?

Nov. 24, 2010
Inter-office Memo
To: Joe and Gavin Maloof
From: Geoff Petrie

Hi guys. I think our coach has gone off the deep end. We really need to do something. I don't usually like to use this description, but we suck.

Nov. 26, 2010
Inter-office Memo
To: Geoff Petrie
From: Joe and Gavin Maloof

Hey Geoff, stop complaining about the coach. You haven't exactly made a trade that made either of our pants damp in a decade. All you do is stand in in the corner during the games and act all cerebral and stuff. You ain't so smart. I mean, Antoine Wright? Really?

Nov. 29, 2010
Inter-office Memo
To: Geoff Petrie, Gavin & Joe Maloof
From: Paul Westphal

Um, I don't want to sound scared, but I'm sending this memo from a cubicle in the locker room bathroom. I think that DeMarcus fellow is a little mad at me. He seems like he might have some anger issues and I was wondering if maybe we could get him some counseling. Wait, someone is pounding on the door. Oh, no... gotta go...

Nov. 29, 2010
Inter-office Memo
To: Gavin Maloof
From: Joe Maloof

We are so screwed.