The Siren's Call: The Kings, Luka Doncic and the Sacrifice of Realism
Suspend disbelief (phrase): "A willingness to suspend one critical faculties and believe something surreal; sacrifice of realism and logic for the sake of enjoyment" (Oxford Dictionary).
When faced with a work of fiction, it's simple knowledge that an audience is required to accept a very improbable scenario for fiction's sake - something that one would never believe if witnessed in real life. In the back of your mind, you know it's not real, but you're enjoying it through the goggles of suspended disbelief.
For over 10 years now, Sacramento Kings fans have been listening to a lineup of people in power weave a tale with only a faint semblance of truth, willingly suspending their disbelief instead of prepping themselves for some very real heartache. Every year brings the same pain with a brand new overtone, pain akin to tolerating a thousand paper cuts on your nipples in the middle of a snow blizzard. And every year, words thinly composed into the shapes of promises fly:
"We'll be better because we have a young core!"
"This coach is going to be amazing!"
"We will win over 41 games!"
This is a tale of two very different cities. This is a tale of two very different uniforms.
One that is thriving in real life and one that hides in the shadows of a very glutinous imagination.
On Tuesday morning, the Kings front office had their hands full. ESPN staff writer Kevin Arnovitz dropped an intriguing bomb on the sports world that revolved around an NBA former chief revenue officer named Jeff David who managed to steal $13 million from the small-market Kings. While this news seemed rather deafening to the NBA world, something even louder was blasting in the ears of Kings fans.
With only one toe barely grazing his sophomore year in the league, Luka Doncic became the second player in NBA history with a 40-point triple-double under the age of 21. During the Dallas Mavericks' 117-110 win over the struggling San Antonio Spurs, the wunderkind from Slovenia had the best game of his career, ending the night with points, 11 rebounds, and 12 assists. Only one other man had 40+ point triple-doubles by the age of 20.
LeBron James.
Said Mavs coach Rick Carlisle, already running out of superlatives for the kid: "He's a beast.''
Doncic has six triple-doubles so far this season and it's only the middle of November. He's averaging 29.5 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 9.3 assists per game.
On any other given week, the Arnovitz story on a suit's sleight-of-hand ways would have caused an uproar with an already delicate purple-and-black fan base... but this would not be that time in history.
This would be the about the time an obstreperous former teenager, armed with nothing but his feverish skillset, got the best of the team that passed him up in the 2018 NBA Draft without even trying.
Blinded by the Artificial Light of Poetic Faith
Trouble always seems to find the River City.
In the past, the trouble came via shifty-looking NBA referees with securely tightened blindfolds made of $1,000 bills and skullduggery. Or it came in the form of a very questionable hotel cheeseburger. A little later down the road, it came by way of a family named Maloof.
It was around this time that the pairing of the two words "Kings fan" became an expletive. Since fans were given a small taste of the honey during the early 2000s, we've been foaming at the mouth ever since. They are the very same fans who fought tooth-and-nail to keep the team in Sacramento when they were in danger of relocating to Seattle. They are the very same fans who were blindsided by a front office who made the claim that DeMarcus Cousins, the then-face of the franchise, would not be traded right before he was - get this - TRADED. They are the very same fans who cheered when the swap moved in our favor. They are the very same fans who lean heavily on De'Aaron Fox, the NOW face of the franchise.
And they are the very same fans who had a meltdown on the night of June 21, 2018.
Rightfully.
With the second pick of the draft, the Kings decided to go with Duke power forward Marvin Bagley III over Doncic. Even though the rumor floating around the water cooler that they would do this came down in the couple days BEFORE the draft, fans clung to hope that it was just that - a rumor.
It wasn't.
Over a year later, with Bagley out with a thumb injury and Doncic excelling in Dallas at such a speedy pace, Kings Twitter is stentorian in its online panic attack, anxiously seething while at the same time weeping inside their own retrospect.
Do NOT get fans wrong - they cheer Bagley while at the same time watching Doncic as if he was a cartoon pie cooling in the kitchen window of somebody else's house.
"I think the root of what frustrates Kings fans a year removed from the 2018 NBA Draft is that nearly everybody predicted this outcome on Draft Night," said Tony Xypteras, one of the contributors of SB Nation's Sactown Royalty, an online Kings publication that has gotten crap for being too "negative" about the team at times.
"The Kings organization, an organization that has made more incorrect basketball decisions than any other NBA franchise over the last decade, went way outside general consensus when they drafted Marvin Bagley over Luka Doncic,'' Tony said. "It was a questionable decision the moment Adrian Wojnarowski leaked the pick on Twitter and has escalated to disastrous since."
Our Mike Fisher has written of a theory that the handful of teams picking ahead of Dallas in 2018 passed on Luka because his people made it so, gently nudging Sacramento and others into understanding how much he wanted to be in Dallas, with Donnie Nelson and Tony Ronzone, and maybe how unhappy he'd be elsewhere.
Maybe. Others have said that Kings GM Vlade Divac passed up on Doncic because he "didn't want to take the ball out of Fox's hands" which has been debunked in the games since because we're basing this on talent over team fit. It's these types of excuses that keep fans and media members like Xypteras shaking their heads in bewilderment.
"The Kings drafted as if they were smarter than everyone else with no results to justify that confidence. And here we are."
After dropping a disastrous five games to open up the 2019-20 season, the Kings have somehow found their footing with head coach Luke Walton's slow pace (well, slower with Fox injured and out). There was an uproar with some Kings fans after Walton was hired right out of the gate without so much as an interview. In the beginning, Walton's lineups were questionable and led to chaos in garbage time, which directly resulted in Bagley's injury.
However, with Fox out, the Kings are shifting, especially on defense. Not only are they steamrolling over teams like the Phoenix Suns (with their 116-120 win on Tuesday night), but are holding their own against good teams like the Boston Celtics, who they held below 100 points on Sunday and managed this unbelievable stop:
Yet, the looming shadow of Luka Doncic hangs over these wins thanks to tenebrous "what-if" scenarios that yawn through the Kings Twitter realm, a realm that continuously has to put up with a front office that's in a constant state of suspended disbelief. And the shadow will continue to torment until Bagley is back on the court, silencing his naysayers and ultimately (hopefully) shifting gears in Sacramento to a more realistic balance.
Dallas is tied to Luka Doncic, and is grateful for it. Sacramento, in a weird way, is tied, too ... and being dragged, kicking and screaming along the way.
