Benn Hodapp: Maybe it’s good nothing happened

Another year and the Kings have gotten worse — a lot worse. The trade deadline brought promises of Ron Artest and/or Mike Bibby trades without results.

I am thrilled that Artest stayed, but had the right trade come through, I was more than ready to book Bibby’s plane ticket out. However, seeing as how the best trade out there was Larry Hughes for Bibby, I am glad the trigger wasn’t pulled.

With all that said, here are some things I have to say about the team. Francisco Garcia angers me. Ship him out. He is a human turnover machine.

Every time he has the ball, he does one of three things: dribbles it off his knee out of bounds, misses a shot by six feet or makes the stupidest pass of all time.

I understand why the Kings didn’t get rid of him — it’s because no one in their right mind would sabotage their own team like that.

Brad Miller is in the same boat. Remember when he looked like he at one time played basketball for a living? Yeah, me neither.

But I think there was a time when he wasn’t complete and total garbage. He can’t jump over two sheets of binder paper stacked on top of each other, and the one thing he used to be able to do (shoot) has evaded him in his advancing age.

Why did the Kings hire Eric Musselman? I bet Rick Adelman is sitting at home laughing himself stupid, and he should. This guy got into town and immediately got cited for drunken driving and proceeded to lead the same team that made the playoffs a year ago to a well bellow .500 record.

As a huge Kings fan, it pains me to say such a thing, but it may be time to start tanking. I’m not saying that the team should lose on purpose, but maybe Artest, Bibby and Martin suddenly succumb to “season-ending injuries” if you catch my meaning. I want as many stinking ping pong balls as possible when they pull one out in June.

If the Kings have any shot at Greg Oden, Kevin Durant, or any of the other excellent players available next year, they need to do what is necessary.

Lamont Weaver: The Kings are not NBA royalty

As the Kings get ready to finish the season and make that full circle back to losing team status let me say something about the “Kings”. I can’t stand the Sacramento Kings. I’m from Sacramento, born and raised, but I have never liked the Kings.

Not when they were doormat of the NBA in the 90’s or when they finally assembled a good team and Sacramento became known for its “hick” fans will ring cow bells at that poor excuse of a stadium, Arco Arena.

For years the Kings were horrible and most of the people of Sacramento didn’t seem to notice or care about their only professional team. Then they finally got a good team, courtesy of new owners the wannabe “Robert De Niro in Casino gangsters” the Maloofs brothers, and coach Rick Adelman. The Kings had a couple of really great teams, led by Chris Webber, Mike Bibby (when he actually played like a point guard), Peja whatever his last name was, and the ultimate bench sparkplug Bobby Jackson.

A matter of fact, that team was playing for Sac just four years ago. It was four years ago when that team was playing the Los Angeles Lakers in one of the greatest playoff series ever in the Western Conference Finals. Four years ago when the Kings were on the verge of playing in the NBA Finals. Also four years ago when the Kings did the ultimate “choke job” and lost in Arco Arena to the Lakers in game seven.

Fast forward to the present and look at the Kings now. Coach Adelman has been replaced by a Michael J Fox-look alike in drunk driver Eric Musselman. All the players I mentioned above are gone, except Mike Bibby, who if you have watched the Kings play recently, looks like he has already left Sacramento and went to a new team.

That’s what I can’t stand about the Kings, how they always seem to do the wrong thing. They get rid of the coach that led the once bottom, bottom team of the NBA to eight straight playoff appearances. They get rid of most of the players that led them to their peak.

I especially hate the Kings for getting rid of Webber, a once “troubled” player that really embraced the city of Sacramento and had a great way about himself. He almost made me cheer for the Kings, me, a lifetime Lakers fan. The Kings now have a roster of mostly nobodies. Ron Artest needs animal treatment classes and Kevin Martin is a great young player(he will leave Sac soon) who could be a superstar but he gets only 6 shots a game.

The owners want a new arena but even Sacramento, the home of the once “best NBA fans” , have appeared to sour of the Kings and won’t approve it. The owners just hosted All-Star Weekend in Vegas; yet say they won’t move the team there (yeah right). The Kings just need to get out of here, give Sacramento a good team.

Oh yeah what happened to Gerald Wallace. He was spent years on the Kings bench, yet he was the Kings best athlete, participating in the dunk contest and even appearing on commercials. He was considered the future of the Kings but they let him go for nothing and now have developed into quite a good player for the Charlotte Bobcats.

Sorry King fans, just wanted to give more proof of why your team is the worst franchise in the NBA.