Friday night you and your boys went out to eat Then they hung out,but you came home around three Now if six of yall went out Then four of you were really cheap Cause only two of you had dinner I found your credit card receipt

Its not right ,but its okay Im gonna make it anyway Pack your bags up and leave And dont you dare come Running back to me

After Friday's "Media Tour De-Force" as Scott Howard-Cooper called it, there is quite a bit of interesting stuff flying around Kings land these days. Most of it revolves around what type of thing's Reggie Theus has planned for this team, I suspect, long term, and unfortunately, my only question is why after 10 games is it such a big deal? Especially when in those first 10 games you've missed key players such as Brad Miller, Kevin Martin, and Francisco Garcia for 3 games or more. Some stuff doesn't quite meet the eye, and it's not because of the team's poor defending 3 point percentage, or the team's porous road trip. Other things pop up, like this particular quote:

There's little chance Maloof came to these conclusions -- Theus needs to get a system, and, while we're at it, "he better try to get one quickly" -- without hearing it from someone with a great deal of credibility in basketball ops. Even if Joe and Gavin are the ones ultimately responsible for what goes on there.

So either, it's Petrie, which I'm wondering if he would do Reggie in the back like this, or it's someone else. Who?

Rick Adelman has got screwed before he went off with the Kings in 2006. It happened in Portland in 1994, and it happened at the same time Geoff Petrie left Portland. Geoff and Rick had tied their fates together, and they did well. In fact so well, it makes one wonder, why would you break it up? Well, Paul Allen had heard many of the criticism's of Rick from his now long gone GM, "Trader Bob" Whitsitt. You remember him right? The guy who said, "I'm not a chemistry major. That's the coaches job." Fast forward to 2008, and Reggie Theus is in hot water again. Not for vigorously explaining "what get the ball to" means, in his words, but because the team doesn't have a good 3 point defending stat. Neither does Portland! Does that mean they are terrible at defending the 3? Well, one could say that, or one could say they haven't been the best at it so far. That's okay. 82 games is a long season. There is time to improve at it.

I'll be honest when I say at first I was wondering if this was a backwards play at getting Rick Adelman at the end of the season if things don't work out for Rick in Houston. But now, I'm thinking something far worse is at stake. John Whisenant is looming as the next GM of the Kings. When that happens, I'm walking out the door, and I'm not coming back. Because if this team fires Geoff Petrie, for John Whisenant of all people, it's time to start packing up your stakes. I'm not interested in hearing about Whiz's success at New Mexico or with the Monarch's. (He did play College ball at New Mexico though.) He doesn't have any prior NBA affiliation, and truth be told, shouldn't start today. Only a stupid moron, like Joe Maloof, would believe John Whisenant is capable of leading the Kings to a championship. Maybe the Maloof family believes Petrie has become snakebitten in the NBA game, and has problems with various levels of infa-structure like the ref's and such. Or who knows? Maybe they don't like Petrie's offensive first philosophy (have no problems with it myself), or maybe they just can't take not being in the spotlight (that seems more reasonable in Joe's case).

If the Maloof's goal is to bring Whiz in as the next GM of the Kings because they've become (complacent, detached, dis-illusioned--pick an adjective) with Petrie, then well that's their right. However, there is no proof that Whisenant will be successful as the Kings GM because he's been successful with the Monarchs. Whisenant took over a team that was built by Jerry Reynolds. He's done little to build upon that since. (In the issue of fairness he didn't have to build upon a championship team. You leave good alone.) He didn't take over a team that was revamped by him on the court. Sonny Allen did that. Whisenant took a successful product, and kept it going strong, and maybe improved it a "little" at some point. But that's what he did, and that isn't what the Kings need. Jerry Reynolds would prove, by the time Whiz's tenure as GM would show, I think, to be more successful, and most people around here probably aren't fond of Jerry's GM career. (Can't say I blame them, but there are lesson's to be learned, and Jerry did a good job overall given what he had to work with.) If Whiz is the next GM, lord help us. I left once, and really didn't miss the team. I didn't really care about the team for much of the hiatus I took, that started when Adelman left the franchise for good. But I can only take so much, and so often, before I say enough. There are more important things in life, especially when I have no financial stake in this, than a basketball team with stupid and dysfunctional ownership that overthrows a successful management executive who hasn't had the luxury and resources several big name colleagues have had (Jerry West and Pat Riley to name a few) since coming to Sacramento. If there is anything that generally binds Kings fans together, it's Geoff Petrie. If you take him out of the equation, you're taking me out as a fan. Because unlike the Maloof's, Geoff was with the Kings when they weren't a nationally sought out brand. And his presence made the team better even if the team's ownership (Jim Thomas) was not of the same caliber.

Right now, and the more I think about it, and the more I write about this, I believe that Reggie Theus is a key ingredient to Geoff Petrie's future. I believe Reggie can make this team work (the 2008-09 incarnation--but it's fixin to be primed for a playoff run next season), but not at a playoff level. That's a hoax, a bullshit statement that only a stupid asshole would promote. Which is probably the essence of Joe Maloof in public. If Reggie can figure out a way to slow the 3's, and all that, this team will improve. But it's not likely to jump much higher than 18-20th barring an absolute change on how things are done. (Which would be an incredible leap). But I get the feeling that's not what Joe wants. He wants a top 5 defense that signify's less than one would believe, but looks good. Reggie has to go so far above & beyond I'm not sure he can meet Joe's expectations. Joe said this team has a "real" shot at making the playoffs, and I'm wondering what team he is watching. Because I don't see a team with that type of capability. Unless he knows something I don't, which is always possible. At some point, this has to stop. The flirtation with Whiz, the undermining of Petrie's basketball decisions, and the stupid hatchet job's like Friday's media tour Joe Maloof made. If you want to run a successful basketball franchise, guess how you do that? Being successful. Running your mouth is not the hallmark of successful franchises. Dysfunction, and bad comparison's to Shakespeare play's are not wise routes to go to winning a NBA title.

I personally hope this is my paranoia showing. I don't particularly care for conspiracy theories. I don't buy that JFK was shot by the CIA, but I believe it had to do with their loose affiliation with the Cuban underground. That sorta thing. (I also don't think JFK's death pushed LBJ to pass the civil rights bill either.) LBJ was no saint. He was a prick, and a hellaciously smart fellow. He said the Civil Rights bill was something that had to be done, and that the Democrats would lose the South 20 years after the signing. Right on both counts. (As sad as that is.) Getting back on track, in the NBA, historically, championships are built around players who change the flow and tempo of the game with their singular talents. Regardless of the type of system your team runs offensively, invariable that offense is broken down by championship levels defensively, and it takes extraordinary talent to overcome that. As the saying goes, "Great Offense beats Great Defense." IN my lifetime there have been very few game changing players who take their teams to another level. Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan to name 3. Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Shaquille O'Neal, Steve Nash all have come close, and the trio of Wallace, Wallace and Billups did some "game" changing on their own. By & Large though, most teams with a "core" of players have not been successful as those teams with a "dominant" player.

The Kings in the earlier part of this decade were the exception. While many can believe that Webber was the key ingredient, I disagree. Always have and will. Divac was the "keyest" ingredient, but Webber and Stojakovic were needed. Bibby's talents were perfectly meshed, and Christie was the greatest role player the Kings ever could have had. He augmented the Kings greatest needs with such precision I'm not sure fans really realize how perfect he was for the team. The Kings won 44 games the season prior to Doug arriving. In the 3 season's after, they won 55, 61 and 59 games. Part of that was due to maturation on Stojakovic and Webber's part, but part of that was due to the versatility that Doug offered. I'm fairly sure that the Maloof's and Whiz can't appreciate that. (Or I'm not sure the Maloof's can. I'm not sure Whiz knows how to integrate parts together.) I'm quite sure they don't realize that the type of luck it took for the Kings to even get to that level in the first place. For a small market team to be successful, it's very difficult. The odds are stacked against it financially, and that makes doing everything else more difficult along the line. Petrie gave the Kings a huge boost in bridging this gap. He brought an advantage they would have never had without his presence, and without it today. This team hasn't had a top 5 pick since 1991, yet for the most part, has steadily/gainfully improved since. A lot of that is because the people running basketball operations since that time, Jerry Reynolds and Geoff Petrie, are quality basketball people who don't deceive themselves about what they see. If you don't think that's true, check out where the Kings were with Dick Motta sometime.

I want the Kings to win a championship someday. Believe me I would feel far better about Joe's tour de force if he hadn't done so without such a hidden agenda. Joe is a "gee whatchamacallit aww shucks" type of guy. If you asked him where he could access that type of information to find out where the Kings rank as far as defending the 3, I'm willing to bet he couldn't figure out how to do it off the top of his head (told ya I was a prick). It would take him awhile. It takes me awhile to figure out some stats, and I've been doing it for some years. Part of comfort is having access, and it's like Joe read from a script on the Rise Guys. That doesn't convince me Joe has the best interests in a franchise, that has been built on the backs of the knowledge like Petrie, Reynolds, Wayne Cooper and Scotty Stirling. Other than Reynolds, the other 3 have ties to each other that come from their Portland days. If you eliminate Petrie out of the equation, what is the motivation for any of them to stick around? If you destroy the inner workings of a basketball organization by taking out the head honcho, you have to rebuild a new team with a new boss. That will take Whisenant far longer than it will take Petrie to accomplish, and he won't have the NBA pedigree that Petrie does when it comes to hiring coaches. He'll have to pick out some desperate college coach off the scrap pile, or some "retread" to take the team over. I believe that if this team is stupid enough to fire Petrie with what he's accomplished, then it's stupid, not to mention arrogant enough, enough to come up with a reason as why Reggie isn't being successful. And those reasons aren't realistic criticism's such as defending the 3 after 10 games, or expecting the playoffs with a young/rebuilding team in the beginning stages.