FANtastic

If the Kings have the best fans in the NBA, why do so many people leave before the game is even over?

Last night’s spanking of the Warriors provided one of the largest premature pilgrimages to the parking lot that I’ve ever seen. When else are you going to see ALL the Kings play in one night? (I think the guy who mops the floor with the Kings logo mop even got to play for a minute or two.)

I was particularly thrown by the gentleman wearing his “DIE HARD KINGS FAN” t-shirt checking his BlackberryTM as he made his way up the stairs to leave at the beginning of the 4th quarter.

At least Sign Man, who sits just steps away from my mom & her friends’ seats, stayed the entire time (as did we.)

It is, however, particularly comforting in true small-town Sacramento spirit to attend a large event like a Kings game and see at least of handful of people you know — be they coworkers, friends of your parents, or the guy who sat behind you in trig in 10th grade. (Last night, I saw the man who was the Mayor of Auburn when we first moved there in 1979, and he spoke to my 4th grade class about the Auburn Dam and the many benefits it would have.)

I say let’s start a grassroots campaign to get people to stay for the entire game and stick with the team until the (sometimes bitter) end of the game — does it really save that much time leaving early? Where else do you have to be at 9:30-10pm at night? Don’t you want to listen to the post-game show on Sports 1140 as you make your way through the lot? C’mon people!