Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive addressed the organization at a team dinner by bluntly listing their recent shortcomings, Zach Lowe reported. While some attendees were alarmed by the roast, others took it as a motivational tactic to prove critics wrong ahead of the new season.
The Sacramento Kings were one of the worst teams in the NBA last season and they haven't improved much during the offseason with even the team's owner reportedly turning a team dinner into a roast of the players and staff.
According to NBA analyst Zach Lowe, Kings owner Vivek Ranadive poked fun at how they have been failing during a team dinner.
"They went out to fancy training dinner, the whole team, the staff, everything. And at the dinner, Vivek Ranadive spoke, and he kind of turned the dinner into a roast of lots of people in the room, telling them all the ways in which they have been failing as players, coaches, executives, whatever," Lowe revealed.
The interaction was received with mixed feelings
The speech had mixed reviews with some understanding the idea of what Ranadive tried to say and others feeling that he failed to send a proper message.
"And I checked with the Kings, and they they confirmed the gist of that, I would say. Some people were alarmed and were like, this is not going over the way you intended," Lowe said.
"Some people thought, I get what he's doing. He's using the fact that we've become a media punchline to, like, motivate us. Like, he was not saying, I, Vivek Ranadive, believe these things about you, but here's what people say about you. Prove us wrong."
The Kings finished last season 14th in the Western Conference with a 22-60 record. They will look to get back to winning ways with Domantas Sabonis returning after missing a lot of last season with injuries and rookie guard Darius Acuff Jr. showing promise ahead of the season start.
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