It’s Good to Be King--Sometimes

Mark Kreidler of the Sacramento Bee, writing on the Lakers and Kings:

“This is the sex-appeal series, with pretty people like Kobe Bryant and Chris Webber flashing their screen-test smiles while whomping opponents with both fists.

“This is the redemption series on the one end (Sacramento) and the evolutionary series on the other (L.A.). . . .

“Any member of the Kings who says he deliberately wanted the Lakers right now is either sleep-deprived or over-hydrated, but there is something riveting about watching the kid go back inside the monster’s cage.”

Sounds scary.

*

Trivia time: Where did the Sacramento franchise originate?

*

Flawed: Chuck Culpepper in the Oregonian:

“The notion of Rasheed Wallace as top-tier talent has run amok and should stop. He is not. He is terrific, but people think that’s one thing and the techmania another, when really they’re intertwined and the techmania deducts points from the talent.”

*

A chilling stat: Tennessee’s football and basketball coaches were on their way to a speaking engagement recently when their small plane ran into a severe storm and had to make an unscheduled landing in Nashville.

Said new basketball Coach Buzz Peterson: “I thought I was going to end up being the only undefeated coach in UT history.”

*

Think again: Peter Vecsey in the New York Post: “Overwhelmed by fan support during the [Charlotte] Hornets’ first-round sweep of the Heat, Hornet co-owner George Shinn withdrew his application for relocation in Memphis.

“Wonderful. But someone should inform Senor Shinn Splints that the Bees had only one home game in the opening round.”

*

Shrinking syndrome: After the Firehawk 600 was postponed last Sunday at the Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News explained:

“Officials worried about a number of physical effects, not the least of which was that drivers would get out of their cars looking like Danny DeVito.”

*

Come again? Fred Couples, a former Masters winner but now a struggling PGA Tour pro, when asked if he is trying to get his game back to where it was.

“Where it was is the ultimate goal. And if you haven’t been there, you don’t know where it is.”

*

Looking back: On this day in 1953, St. Louis Brown rookie Bobo Holloman made baseball history when he pitched a 6-0 no-hitter against Philadelphia in his first major league start.

*

Trivia answer: In Rochester, N.Y., in 1948-49, as the Royals. The franchise later became the Cincinnati Royals, then the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, then the Kansas City Kings before moving to Sacramento for the 1985-86 season.

*

And finally: Chicago White Sox slugger Frank Thomas is sidelined because of a sore triceps muscle, and pitcher David Wells said of his teammate on ESPN radio:

“If you don’t have the guts to be out there, you know what, you don’t need to be here. . . . Playing hurt will get you a lot more respect from your fellow players.”

Replied a seething Thomas, “He ain’t no . . . doctor. If I could be out there, I’d be out there.”