Good to be Kings

Sporting News, The, Jan 22, 2001 by Sean Deveney

With a diverse yet cohesive groups of players, Sacramento is threatening the established Western Conference powers

Vlade Divac is having a good time. The Kings are just a few minutes away from tipoff at Arco Arena, and Divac is nervously bouncing from one foot to the other, as if in anticipation. The arena is dark, but music and flashing lights are working the crowd into delirium just before the Kings are to be introduced. Divac can feel it coming, and he tells assistant coach Elston Turner, "Get ready, get ready." He sees that I'm not ready, so he turns and tells me, "Get ready."

Ready? Ready for what?

"Here it comes ..." Divac warns. "Now!"

Four flashes explode above the Kings scoreboard. Fireworks. Divac has covered his ears. He has it timed perfectly. "I got it, I got it!" he yells to Turner. He is celebrating, dancing, holding two fists in front of him, 85 inches of stubbly goofiness. I did not cover my ears, and the ringing from the explosions will be with me for the next few days. Divac finds this funny. "I told you to get ready," he says.

Divac is the Kings' center, the team's second-oldest player, second-leading rebounder and No. 1 funnyman. He was known as "Marlboro Man" earlier in his career because he could not kick his smoking habit. Divac, 32, has been in the NBA for 12 years, and he has been playing basketball professionally since he was 16--way back when Yugoslavia was still Yugoslavia. His background makes him a natural fit with the Kings' two other European players, Predrag Stojakovic and Hidayet Turkoglu, but his years in the league make him a venerated leader among the diverse group of American players in Sacramento, He is the WD-40 that keeps loose the league's tightest-knit team, the team that has laughed its way to the upper reaches of the Western Conference standings and seems reluctant to return to the second tier.

"It's always the big guy," forward Chris Webber says. "We had Gheorghe Muresan in Washington, now Vlade here--people who made it easy for everyone to get along. I know it's not like that everywhere."

It's not like this anywhere, really, not the way it is in Sacramento. It's the third-smallest NBA city, but its fans are rabid, and the Kings are the only major team in town--as Lakers coach Phil Jackson noted earlier this season: "What else do they play? Picking fruits and vegetables?"

But just as Sacramento is a tight community, so is its basketball team, despite carrying a roster of players with backgrounds that read like the setup of a bad joke. There are two Serbs in the frontcourt (Divac and Stojakovic, now a Greek citizen), a rookie from Turkey (Turkoglu) coming off the bench, a West Virginian point guard (Jason Williams), a power forward from Detroit (Webber) and so on.

For the Kings, though, the punchline is hilarious: a spot among the league's best teams.

"If you're a basketball player in Sacramento, I guess you stand out," forward Lawrence Funderburke says. "This is such a close-knit place. Say you are living in New York or Los Angeles, everybody kind of scatters, and it's easy to have your own thing in a place like that. But here, this city breeds closeness if you are an athlete, especially a basketball player. You have to stick together, there aren't many people like you. And we do."

"Those are the loudest fans in the dag-gone league," Orlando Magic guard Tracy McGrady says. "And when they get into it, and the team gets into it, you see them on the bench jumping around, slapping each other."

For all the team unity, though, the Kings are playing against a legacy that is among the NBA's bleakest. Their run to the top of the standings is cause for cynicism. The team has not reached the second round of the playoffs since 1981, and before coach Rick Adelman took over for the 1998-99 season, the Kings had not finished above .500 since 1983. Under Adelman, Sacramento finished above .500 the last two seasons but was eliminated twice in the first round, reaching the deciding Game 5 both times. Skepticism is expected, no matter how lovable this bunch is.

"Hey, we're a close team, but that does not win," Funderburke says. "You can be as close as you want, but it helps to have some talent. Until we do win, until we get deep into the playoffs, I don't blame people for doubting us."

Words of advice

During a timeout in the first half of a game against the Pacers, Funderburke has some advice for Williams. Williams is matched up against Pacers guard Jalen Rose, and Funderburke tells Williams he should be using his quickness advantage, that Rose can't keep up with him. Funderburke has not played a minute of point guard in his career, but that does not keep him from dishing out advice.

"J-Will, just raise up one time, and go around him, see.?" Funderburke says. Williams nods. "He can't guard you. He don't want to guard you."

A few steps away, Williams' backup, Bobby Jackson, is getting some advice from reserve shooting guard Nick Anderson. "Bobby," Anderson says, rolling his arms. "Come on, now. Get yourself involved. Get a shot out them."