Surprise to no one given my non de blog, I love dogs. Got myself Sac County’s legal limit of them, all well-cared-for and not a nuisance to the neighbors. The aforementioned ‘98 Plymouth Voyager I schlep around town in is because of them, because you just can’t fit that many dogs in your average sports car.

I’m sure it will also surprise no one that I don’t make as much money as the King’s Ron Artest does. And yet, surprisingly, no one has ever had to get on my case about feeding my dogs. Further, although I don’t travel nearly as much as an NBA star does, I am on the road from time to time. And guess what? There are these lovely people called pet-sitters who will come in and — get this — FEED AND CARE FOR MY PETS while I’m gone. There are also boarding kennels, too, such as the fabulously upscale Wag in West Sac, the cost of which should not give a professional athlete pause.

And yet, King Ron can’t pull it together for his best friends.

Continue reading “Earth to Ron: Hire a pet-sitter” »

Let’s recover from the heated debates of the last two days with an even more controversial topic: Kings coiffery. It’s hard to argue about the immediate effect of Artest’s new ‘do, but it’s easy to argue about it being totally ridiculous or not. Discuss.

Associated Press/Charles Krupa

I really ought to turn in my cub reporter press pass. Last week I heard from no fewer than three reputable sources that R.E. Graswich was to be among those people taking the buyout offer at Fort McClatchy. But I never got around to posting about it.

Bob himself beat me to it, reporting the news at the end of his column yesterday.

He goes a long way back in this town’s inky history, starting at the Rancho Cordova Grapevine (where he got some notice as a teenager for covering tough news stories). At the Bee, he covered prep sports, ran the prep sports coverage, covered the Kings for a few years and finally ended up turning his bar-cruising and Hawaiian shirt-wearing ways into a career as the short item talk-of-the-town writer.

Continue reading “R.E. off to a Bee-less future” »

From the L.A. Times:

The love affair between Phil Jackson and the state capital continued Thursday.

“It’s a beautiful place,” he said, opening his arms figuratively with an apparent compliment for Arco Arena. [...] “It’s just one of the very few places where you have to walk across the court to get to a locker room that’s a dungeon.”

There’s more, and the LAT seems to like it just a little too much. In fact, they took a dig in another section, too:

Sacramento is a suburb of Los Angeles. Nothing drives home that point more than a walk through Terminal A at Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport at the start of the workweek, where you can see a host of L.A. lawmakers — and lobbyists, political lawyers, labor leaders and corporate executives — waiting for their short hops to the Capitol. [...]

California’s capital city may be where all the state’s movers and shakers mingle, but L.A. still rules.

Yeah, just ask ‘em. Here’s the rest.

Knocked off early at the widget factory yesterday and took the family to Barnes & Noble at Market Square. Gotta love that kid’s section–plenty of fun for the kids, but with only 2 exits it’s super easy to monitor. Afterward, while eating some really authentic Chinese food from a little restaurant I usually just refer to as “Orange Chicken” who walks in to the humble Market Square but NBA superstar Mike Bibby. He did some holiday shopping at B&N, graciously signing a few autographs for his adoring fans, before dining at California Pizza Kitchen. Gods among men. I tried to give him a what’s up nod but believe it or not he was talking on a cellular phone the whole time!

Continue reading “Weird things are afoot at the CPK” »

I found an interesting editorial addressed to David Stern, commissioner of the NBA, regarding his taking over of Sacramento’s arena negotiations:

Nov. 19 - Dear David Stern: Thanks for deciding to be a lead negotiator for the National Basketball Association in efforts to build a new arena in Sacramento. The last arena proposal — Measures Q and R on the November ballot — was so strange that not even the Sacramento Kings ended up supporting it. Even you wondered why anyone would vote Yes. You sensed the pickle Sacramento is in. A respected outside influence sure would be helpful, maybe even necessary, to figure out a solution.

It’s an interesting, and might I say, refreshing take on the future of Sacramento’s arena issue.  Whether David Stern was brought in to try to get a deal done, or if he’s simply coming to town to eventually say that a deal can’t be done, time will tell.  However, the final thought of the article is what I found most compelling:

…The Sacramento arena problem is a symptom of a broader problem with the NBA. Medium-sized markets like ours need huge government subsidies to deal with financial inequities within the league. The league’s business model is screwed up more than Sacramento’s priorities are.

This community won’t and can’t paper over the NBA’s problem with gobs of new taxes. It can work with just about anyone for a worthy civic goal. Keep that in mind. And welcome to town.

Sacramento’s local issue might have great implications for professional basketball in the United States. Indeed, whether the Kings stay in this town is not just a measure of Sacramento, but also a measure of the NBA.

The City released the MOU today and KCRA has the document (31 page PDF). I’m not going to read this very closely and as always I’m no expert, but so far I can only find a few things of note…

UPDATE: KCRA has Dave Jones stating that the MOU contains new costs, but I actually disagree on that point; the preliminary term sheet didn’t contain the $45 million for parking, but the July 25 Quality of Life measure did.

Continue reading “Read the arena “Memorandum of Understanding”” »

Kings head coach Eric Musselman was picked up by CHP at 2:15 a.m. Saturday and blew a 0.11 bac. He spent a few hours in county jail and was released early this morning, and will have to make a court date in November. He was picked up on K St., so I like to think of him driving like a maniac down the mall, but I suppose a DUI would be the least of your worries then…

The signing of of center Maurice Taylor was announced by the Sacramento Kings yesterday:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Kings signed veteran forward Maurice Taylor on Tuesday.

Taylor, who spent the past 1.5 years with the New York Knicks,averaging 6.3 points and 3.4 rebounds last season. He has alsoplayed for the Los Angeles Clippers and the Houston Rockets in a nine-year NBA career.

Kings coach Eric Musselman expects to use Taylor as a backup center behind Brad Miller.

“We look forward to having him provide us with some additional depth, flexibility and veteran experience on our front line,” said Geoff Petrie, the Kings’ president of basketball operations. “We think he’ll fit in really well.”

Unsubstantiated reports also indicate that Taylor loves the cities of Las Vegas and Anaheim.

Racehorses, it has been said, are the perfect sports franchise. They always try their best, they don’t shoot their mouth off and they never renegotiate their contracts. Maybe that’s why the Maloofs dipped a toe into horse-racing, with a 5-year-old colt named King Palm.

The horse is something special: He can’t win, and he has nine straight second-place finishes. From the Bloodhorse online:

The streak is believed to be a Thoroughbred record, but no one seems to know for sure.

“I don’t know anyone who keeps track of seconds,” said trainer Vladimir Cerin, who has never seen anything like it in his 27 years of conditioning.

“It’s actually easier to win nine in a row – if you have a really good horse – than finish second nine times like that,” he added. “You have to beat everybody else except one horse each race. We’re trying to win every time, but something always seems to happen.”

The Maloof brothers – George Jr., Joe, Gavin and Phil – see the irony that King Palm has the same bridesmaid tendencies as their NBA franchise. The Kings are perennial playoff contenders without a crown.

“It’s hilarious,” Gavin Maloof said. “It’s the only time I’ve ever been happy about finishing second in my life. Everybody into racing knows our horse.”