Arena deal just doesn't pencil out with Maloofs as owners

Do the Maloofs have any money left?

That's the $387 million question as the all-important arena vote looms.

With the team struggling to fill the arena, their Power Balance naming rights deal in tatters, their casino interests drained almost to zero, and no other seeming revenue streams, how do these guys come up with any cash?

It's almost comical to think they will be able to pony up with anything close to the $85 million that Sacramento is demanding to build the arena.

And would the NBA lend them the money when Anaheim is willing and able to welcome them without a penny out of pocket?

This is looking bleak.  And sadly, it's not going to be on the City of Sacramento this time.  Because unless the Brothers Maloof finally relent and sell the team, I can't see how this deal works.

Does commissioner David Stern have the juice to force a sale? Doubtful.  Especially after the lockout fiasco that proved small-market teams have begun to erode his once enormous power.

Let's look at some harsh numbers:

--In 2009-10, a total of 23 of the NBA's team worked at an operating loss.  Eleven teams had net losses of more than $20 million.  With the economy in the tank and Sacramento hurting, you can bet the Kings are one of the league's least profitable teams.

--The Kings already owe the city the balance of a $70 million loan.  Combine that with a $60 million loan from the NBA and Maloofs would be sitting on $130 million in debt with no positive cash flow.

--The Kings would be simply tenants in the new building, meaning they would get no cash flow from parking or other events beyond basketball.

Now, nobody has yet explained why the Kings need to come up with this huge block of cash upfront.  It doesn't really make sense.  Yearly leasing fees would be much easier for the team to handle.

But that's the game of chicken being played right now.

From this vantage point, only new owners with very deep pockets make this deal in Sacramento work.

I could be wrong.  I hope I am.

But the Kings could not be in worse shape.  On the court, the team is a mismatched assemblage of ill-fitting parts.  Off the court, the owners have become financial zombies, former millionaires who just stumble through life with the desperate aura of lost wealth.

I just can't see how the Kings remain in Sacramento with the Maloofs as owners.

Zombie Arena is just not going to cut it.




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The Secret Transcript of personal call between C-Webb and Grant Napear

By now, you've probably heard about the infamous encounter between Chris Webber and Grant Napear on Grant's radio show on Friday.  If you didn't, here's a quick recap: 

C-Webb babbled on for three minutes about how he has made it his one-man mission to save the Kings and was offended that someone would question his motives, all the while never answering Napear's question about an obvious misstatement made during TNT's Thursday night' broadcast against the Thunder.  He then hung up.

Easily the most entertaining moment in the history of Grant Napear simply because:

A.)  Grant barely spoke.
B.)  Webber showed himself to be a total ass.

But did anyone know that Napear allegedly made a personal call to Webber off the air just minutes after his show ended.

Thanks to an inside source at the radio station, we have the alleged transcript of that call.

Grant: Yo, Chris...

Webber:  Who's this?

Grant: It's me.  Grant.

Webber: Shit.

Grant: Don't hang up.

Webber: I game you the damn interview.  What else do you want?

Grant: I just wanted--

Webber: To apologize?

Grant: No.

Webber: I'm C-Webb, you know.

Grant: I know.

Webber:  Don't freakin' question me.  Tell me your sorry.

Grant: But I just wanted--

Webber: I love Sacramento.  I once for a couple of minutes thought about living there after I finished playing.  Thanks to me, people know where your damn-ass city even is.

Grant: Well that's not exactly true.

Webber:  Damn straight it is.  Why are you calling me?  I have to go to a wardrobe check. 

Grant:  Look, I guess I might be a little sorry you felt--

Webber:  That's right. Start sucking up, Grant.  Like when you talk to Gavin and Joe.  Never heard you ask them a tough question.

Grant:  That's insulting.

Webber: Oh yeah, I forgot, you do berate your dumb-ass callers.  Getting all New Yawk on them.  Why does anybody listen to you?

Grant:  I happen to be the top-rated radio sports host in Sacramento.

Webber: You're the only radio sports host in Sacramento.

(long pause)

Grant: I like you Chris.

Webber: Call me Mr. Webber.

Grant: What?

Webber:  You got wax in your ears?

Grant:  This isn't fair.  I was only asking you a simple question and then you--

Webber: You tell those broke-ass owners they should be bowing down and thanking me.

Grant: Thanking you? 

Webber: When I talk, people listen. I'm C-Webb.  C-Webb carries a lot of juice.  C-Webb rules the roost.

Grant: Why are you talking about yourself in the third person?

Webber:  What third person, ass?  It's just me and you.  It's just C-Webb and you.  No third person. 

(long pause)

Grant: I'm done.

Webber:  Don't be angry, Grant.

Grant: This is unbelievable.

Webber: Tell the people of Sacramento I love them.

Grant: Go to hell.

(dial tone)

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.

Grotesque, loathsome, repugnant and other words to describe the Kings

Kings fans, are you exhausted just trying to come up with the proper adjective to describe you favorite basketball team?

Well, fret no longer.  As a public service, we are providing a list of descriptive words that easily serve to represent your feelings for the current team.

Appalling, awful, bad-looking, beastly,deformed, disfigured, foul,  frightful, grisly,gross, grotesque, hard-featured, hideous,homely,  horrid, ill-favored, loathsome,misshapen, monstrous, plain, repelling, repugnant, repulsive, revolting. Much thanks to thesaurus.com

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.

It's official: The John Salmons trade is the worst in NBA history

Geoff Petrie owes all Kings fans an apology.

A nice little note would be perfect.

Maybe some flowers.

But he needs to do something because we are forced to watch the immensely uninspiring play of Mr. John Salmons this season.

Why did the Kings trade for this guy?  Why?

I knew it was gonna be bad on draft day.

Let's go back read my words from that fateful day...

http://kingstalkingpoints.blogspot.com/2011/06/john-salmons-worst-move-ever.html

Forget Jimmer. Isaiah Thomas is the team's new starting point guard

Ladies and gentleman, your new starting point guard for the Sacramento Kings...

Isaiah Thomas.

If the diminutive point guard can continue to play with even half the court vision, confidence and overall poise he showed against Toronto on Wednesday night, there is absolutely no reason he shouldn't be the team's starting point.

Right now.  And for the forseeable future.

The kid's got moxie.  Nobody on the team sees the floor like this kid.  Not Tyreke.  Not Marcus.  And not Jimmer.

He provided more easy baskets for DeMarcus Cousins than we've seen all season.  And Lord nows this team needs easy baskets.

So take a seat, Mr. Fredette, you're good for 5 or 10 minutes a game.  That's it.  Thomas is the rookie the watch.

He's small, but he plays big.

Let the Isaiah era begin.

1/11/12

Maloofs can't be this stupid. can they?

So how is it possible that the formerly rich Maloof brothers can't see the giant poop stain sitting in front of their courtside seats?

How is it possible that every Kings fan wants to see coach Paul Westphal shoved out the door yet the Brothers Grim are blind?

How is it possible that the team owners who promised to move heaven and earth and spend like crazy in an attempt to improve the team are still near the league minimum in team salary?

How is it possible that those wacky brothers have not told Geoff Petrie to use his supposed creative genius to craft a deal for a veteran star talent?

How is it possible that Gavin and Joe can't see that the current squad is so unlikable and plays such a selfish, uninspiring brand of basketball that the arena will be empty in a matter in months?

How do these Two Blundering Blokes not see that Tyreke Evans and DeMarcus Cousins have been mismanaged so badly that the team's coaches should be charged with basketball malpractice?

Well, here's the answer...

They know all those things.  Every one of them.

But they are not going to do a thing.

Not for at least two more months.

I hope I'm wrong, but their only strategy seems to be the stall.  And the stall is meant to kill enthusiasm.  And to kill fan interest.  And to show David Stern that they were right last year...

That the team belongs in Anaheim... where a pot of gold awaits.

Even if the city comes up with a viable arena deal, the Maloofs can argue the terms, balk at the rental fees, and crumble it.

Some argue it's out of the Maloofs' hands.  That it will be Stern's call.  I don't buy it.

Prove me wrong, Maloofs.  I'd be more than happy to admit it.

Make a move.  Make two moves.  Show some guts.  Spend some money.  Make a league-shattering deal.  Bring in a top coach.

C'mon, Maloofs, I dare you.

Because it ain't gonna happen.

Revealed: The secret first draft of Westphal's statement on DeMarcus Cousins

You've probably seen the statement on DeMarcus Cousins from Paul Westphal on Sunday night.

This is how it read:

“Whenever a new season begins, in any sport, there is great hope that everything will progress in only a steady, upward direction. As we all know, it seldom happens like that in this life!

As coaches, we can only ask that our players do everything they can to improve themselves as individuals and teammates. If they do this with all their hearts, we live with the results.

Everything that happens on a team does not become known to the public. This is how it should be. However, when a player continually, aggressively, lets it be known that he is unwilling/unable to embrace traveling in the same direction as his team, it cannot be ignored indefinitely.

DeMarcus Cousins has demanded to be traded. In the best interest of our team as we go forward, he has been directed by me, with the support of management, to stay home from the New Orleans game tonight.”

What you probably didn't see was the first draft of the statement.  Kings Talking Points was privately slipped the alleged First Draft by a member of the Kings organization on Monday.  For reasons unknown, this draft was not allowed to go public.  Here it is.  You read it and decide.

“In the course of human history, we sometimes cross paths with a fellow so heinous, so destructive, so downright gangsta, we must give pause to ponder not only the fate of the Sacramento Kings, but the fate of the world.  When a player refuses to run my spectacular offense and grimaces when I ask him if he ever saw "The Shawshank Redemption,"  I know there is a problem.  

"Mr. Cousins has shown an unwillingness to address me with respect.  In fact, he has repeatedly called me names such as 'dumb-ass' and 'Mr. West-Fail."  This, of course, in unacceptable.

"DeMarcus Cousins demands not only a trade, but he also demands that I politely embrace him and pat him gently when he is removed from the game.  He also wants me to hold his water bottle during timeouts.  The water bottle thing is a joke, I believe, although I have no problem patting him. 

"As coach of the Sacramento Kings for at least the next week (maybe longer if I can convince the brilliant management team that this whole crapfest is not my fault), I need to lay down the law.  I call it Paul's Law and it is based on Talmudic readings.  Everyone shall follow it.  It is written.

"It is in the best interest of my personal career the Sacramento Kings that we ask DeMarcus to stay as far away from the arena as humanly possible.  I have asked him to stay in Yuba City at the Best Western (breakfast is free).

All the best,

With much love,

Paul Westphal

Sacramento Kings coach

Cousins wants a trade? Trade him. Trade everyone.

If DeMarcus Cousins wants a trade, I say trade him.

And trade Tyreke Evans, too.

And fire Paul Westphal.

And Geoff Petrie.

Hell, that usher in Section 116 needs to go, too.

Can the Maloofs fire themselves?

All hell has broken loose in Kings Land and we're not even a week in.  How much fun is this?

The Maloofs are getting exactly what they deserve.  An egomaniacal group of self-centered players and a coach who has no idea how to get them to behave.

This is the team they have assembled.  These are the type of players Petrie has been directed to acquire.  Style over substance.

Take Jimmer Fredette.  The guy has no business getting more than 10 minutes a game right now.  He does not now how to run an offense.  He can't play even a lick of defense.  And his ball-handling skills are mediocre at best.  But the Maloofs saw a quick way to make a buck by taking advantage of Jimmer mania.

Two years ago, they forcefed Tyreke Evans into thinking he was Kobe.  He was never coached.  Still hasn't been coached.  And the results are evident.

Last year, the team drafted DeMarcus Cousins and prayed he wouldn't detonate.  A year later, the bomb has gone off and the fallout is all over the franchise.

The Kings have become radioactive.   Call in the Haz-Mat Team.

It's a hopeless assemblage.  And it needs to be dismantled before more fans bleed from the team and the chances for an arena are eradicated completely.

Start from scratch right now.  There's nothing to lose.  The team can't go backwards.  They are stuck in reverse against a concrete wall.