Moving Sale

Everything must go! Half off!

It's sad to say that only months after christening this here website with the first blurb of idiocy, I'm leaving it behind to wither in the tempestuous Sacramento fall weather. SACKINGSBLOG.com, your home for crackpot opinions on the Kings and the NBA, is sadly no more.

But fear not, masochists - SACTOWN ROYALTY is here to bludgeon you with misguided prose.

Having understood the complaints from Celtics fans that my site was "hideous" even before they pointed it out to me, I looked for ways I could run a Kings blog while doing even less work. That took me to the wholly wonderful SportsBlogs Nation, a network run by the guys that brought you Daily Kos and Athletics Nation, as well as my personal favorite Giants blog, McCovey Chronicles.

SBN offers me a lot of things (the actual potential for some ad revenue, a clean site look, a close network of sportsbloggers, easy-to-use technology), and hopefully it will offer my current and future readers some great features, too. Over at SR, you can post a diary, which is like a mini-blog where you can spout off on anything, even if I haven't posted on it.

You do have to register to comment or post a diary, but it's extremely easy to do so. Also, feel free to use a throwaway freebie email account to register - although we promise not to spam you, I understand some people's hatred for logins.

I thank you all for reading my crap, posting your own crap, emailing me to tell me you actually like my crap and clicking on my ads. All very much appreciated.

And I hope y'all will join me over at SACTOWN ROYALTY.

Major SKB News Coming

Tune in first thing tomorrow morning, as we have big news for all three of our readers. It may involve some work on your part, and probably none on ours. Other than that, it should make you happy. If it doesn't, we're sending our large Sicilian uncle over to "visit." Capiche?

Survivor: Sacramento Update

In case you haven't been paying much attention, two more players have been kicked off the island. Rickey Paulding, as expected, was dropped, as was Erik Daniels, who actually had a roster spot most of last season as a backup and seldom-used forward.

Sam Amick wrote up the ED cut a few days ago. With Dan Langhi and Anwar Ferguson already gone, this brings the magic cut number to three.

Eric Sandrin has to be next to go, along with either Luis Flores or Ronnie Price and Luke Schenscher or Jamal Sampson. My money is on Sandrin getting cut within days and Flores and Luke Dynamite getting cut on Halloween.

Suns Still Better?

SI thinks so. Their league preview has the Kings as the sixth-best team in the West, behind the Spurs, the Nuggets (yes, the #2 Denver fricking Nuggets), the Suns sans Amare, the Mavericks and the Rockets. The Sonics rank at number 7, much to the displeasure of the hilarious SuperSonicSoul.

Our own division preview will be laid out starting Monday.

Nasty

Reading this story on Big Nasty makes me really hope the guy gets significant minutes this season.

Of course, seeing him on offense and remembering 1997 (when he was the number one option) makes me wish he wouldn't get any minutes.

Blogosphere Power Rankings

It's a few days late, but...

YAYsports has implemented a fantastic feature - a weekly compendium of basketblogger power rankings. The first edition came out Monday and can be found below.



The top five looks very similar to my own, though Cleveland over the Kings should never happen. I also think that because EVERYONE seems to believe the Suns are going to plummet to the fiery depths of Golden-State-Warriordom, that they're probably going to hang around the top this season. Fricking conventional wisom.

Gone Fishing

Sorry for the late notice, but SKB is on a short vacation until Wednesday. We'll catch up on the win over L.A. and whatever happens versus the Warriors Sunday then. But for now, our mind is a clean slate, worrying not about cat-vomit uniforms, rebound margins or Adelmania.

Feel free to comment on any of the weekend games in the comments of this post.

Fandemonium, A Few Days Late

Okay, so almost a week late. But we finally got some pictures from a reader!

Keith sent along the following photos from Saturday's Fandemonium event, which didn't include a scrimmage (?) but did have other fun things, including Bonzi Wells and Brad Miller peddling snacks and beer.

Here's Bonzi (either signing autographs or squeezing ketchup on a hot dog - we can't tell):


...and B-52 posing with 6-year-old Kings fan Jason:


...and something we are totally NOT ready to discuss yet, the cat-vomit jerseys:


Thanks Keith!

Boston's Ebert and Roeper

So I check my traffic this morning and see a veritable avalanche of unnormal hits. Where are they from? Celtics Blog, where one of the top 5 hoopsbloggers on the planet complimented me.

So I check the comments of the too-kind post, and I see this C's fan's response:

"SacKingsBlog is OK.. the writing is entertaining but man oh man is that a hideous layout."

You win some, you lose some. But is that one hell of a t-shirt in the making?

We now have two slogans here at SKB. Vote for your favorite:

SACKINGSBLOG.com: We use all sorts of math and shit to prove a point.

Or

SACKINGSBLOG.com: "The writing is entertaining, but man OH MAN is that a hideous layout."

The choice is yours, America.

Shocker: Tsakopoulos Wants to Build Homes

The Bee has the story on Angelo K. Tsakopoulos's new plan to get the Maloofs their arena. It involves developing land in eastern Sac County - property that is earmarked as open space.

This sped-up development would raise funds to build a new arena for the Kings in North Natomas. A similar plan got killed last spring when Angelo's fellow landowners balked at contributing 20 percent of their home-selling profits.

Tsakopoulos is a magnificently hungry power broker, for those unfamiliar with him. He has the money, land and connections to essentially do want he wants, and though sources in the Bee story say such a plan is far-fetched (a recently approved growth plan doesn't call for homes on AKT's land in eastern county).

That the tribes are involved in this plan is interesting, too. They are a big source of funds, though it's unclear how they will contribute to any arena plan. And the Maloofs certainly don't seem to be counting their eggs yet. So, you know, grain of salt.

Will Sacramento get an ultimatum this year? I'd guess yes, and I'd venture that the ultimatum will be 2008.

Rip Hamilton's Secret Exposed!

Along with pondering the idea of painting his clear face mask like a superhero, Andrei Kirilenko talks about how refs probably call tougher games on guys guarding players with broken noses. Rip Hamilton is sooo going to hurt AK47 for giving away his secret.

Kings Lose Meaningless Game, Blogger Jumps to Conclusions

The Kings dropped their first preseason game to the Mavs last night, going down 96-83.

The Good
- Kevin Martin and Jason Hart both looked good on defense. B-52 had his moments on D, too.
- KT started and got into a nice flow in the second half. He ended up 5 for 8, hitting some nice-looking midrangers.
- Shareef, coming off the bench, was excellent.
- 82 percent from the line as a team.
- We feel confident in saying Skinner is healthy.

The Bad
- Peja went 1 for 7. Somewhere, Chris Webber chuckled.
- The starting 5 looked horrible together, which is to be expected since, you know, this is like their first game together (though 4 of the 5 were together part of last season).
- Bibby looked real slow. Again, to be expected. It was the first preseason game.
- The team shot 20 percent from behind the arc and 43.7 percent overall. Bibby and Peja were each 0 for 3 for long-range.

The Vaguely Irritating
- Ronnie Price and Jamal Sampson got a combined 4 minutes of playing time, and E.D., Flores, Paulding, Sandrin and Luke Dynamite did not play.

All in all, it's very good to be seeing NBA basketball on a TV near me. I like the basketball.

Open Game Thread, 10/11, Preseason Game 1

Consider this a thread to talk about tonight's preseason opener vs. the Mavs - before, during or afterwards.

I don't care if we win or lose any preseason games. Let's just hope everyone stays healthy, that the youngsters show us something (hi Kevin Martin!) and that Kenny Thomas doesn't pout.

Let's (cautiously) go Kings!!!

Joint Surface Defects, How I Love Thee

Now I never wish harm on anyone, especially a guy practically my own age.

But Amare Stoudemire being out the next four months is probably the best thing to happen to the Kings title chances since Kobe went down with food poisoning in 2002. My glee-o-meter is off the freaking charts right now.

How prescient was this email exchange I had with a famous Suns fan yesterday?

SKB: I hope Amare's knee is as chewed up as a
$2.99 sirloin from the Sundowner.
Famous Suns Fan: Yeah, you'd better. Because otherwise, he will eat Kenny Thomas for brunch.

KT - you've been spared The Amare Stoudemire Eggs Benedict Experience. I'll toast to that.

Inside Stuff, Shorter

NOTE: Welcome, readers of the Carnival of the NBA. Please note that this site is now defunct, but you can find Tom Z.'s crackpot analysis of the Kings and the NBA on SACTOWNROYALTY.com. Thanks.

My basketball jones is really acting up today. Part of it is, you know, the start of freaking preseason tonight!. Another part could have to do with seeing my first 05-06 episode of Inside Stuff this morning.

Here are the, um, highlights:

- Balki Ginobili is well-loved in native Argentina. Surprise.
- Sugar Ray Allen absolutely needs to grow back his fade. Conversely, Baron Davis absolutely needs to shave his facial tribute to Just for Men spokesman Clyde Frazier. NBA Week on Wheel of Fortune should be entertaining, to say the least.
- Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean Jacques Wamutombo is the funniest man alive. Can we just keep a camera on this guy? The Sports Illustrated story last season that followed Deke, Yao and Patrick Ewing out for dinner single-handedly forced me to resubscribe. Comedy gold, that Dikembe Mutombo Mpolondo Mukamba Jean Jacques Wamutombo.

Also, ESPN tried to peddle Bill Simmons' book on the 2004 Red Sox during Inside Stuff. Too bad Boston got knocked out so Padre-like - that was a golden marketing opportunity.

We haven't picked up a copy yet (we're struggling through Phil's ode to himself right now, and the book on Sebastian Telfair is next). But knowing Simmons, we're sure it's good.