I am not from Sacramento, and I had almost no knowledge of the team before I moved here for school two years ago. But now I find myself so swept up in Kings fever that I caught myself swearing at the top of my lungs when I watched the series against Utah.

This city loves the Kings so much because it is pretty much the only thing that we have. This is sad, considering the fact that we are the capital of the most populous state in the union. However, we all know that most people outside of California have no idea we even exist. Sacramento is like Albany. It?s the capital of a powerful state, but no one gives a crap. We?re not even in Disney?s California Adventure park at Disneyland.

But what we do have is a basketball team, and at the moment we have the basketball team. It is our way of saying, “We exist. Seriously, we are an actual city with freeways and everything.”

Most importantly, they are getting us recognition. Another example of this would be Notre Dame. All of the students going there from out of state chose that school because they saw the football team play on television. Before Notre Dame, no one, not even the governor of Indiana, knew where South Bend was.

Larger, more well known cities do not have this problem. In San Francisco, the 49ers have a pretty big fan base, but there is still a considerable chunk that views the team with apathy. They don?t need to have a great football team to inspire pride in San Franciscans; they have the Golden Gate, Alcatraz, Pier 39 and if all else fails they can root for the Giants.

The Kings are all that Sacramentans have at this point. They take with them the hopes that Sacramento can become a big time city.

So wear your purple and black, scream like a moron and keep repeating the phrase, “L.A. sucks.”

The editors agree: the Lakers suck. E-mail Ryan Flatley at [email protected].

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