Welcome back to our off-season series, “Just Wait ‘til Next Year!” in which special guest Jerry Reynolds and I bring you our 147 combined years to bring you our recollections of past Kings years. In case you missed it, check out 1986 here.
Roughly three weeks prior to the beginning of the 1987 season, the stock market experienced “Black Monday,” losing 22% of its value in what is still the largest single-day percentage drop in U.S. stock market history.
(On the brighter side, some really weird, animated shorts began to appear on the Tracey Ulman Show. Everyone universally agreed that this very bizarre, crudely drawn animated family would go on to have a 35+ year, 750+ episode TV run (and more importantly, endless StR and TKH comment section gifs).
Let’s Kings basketball!
The big street cred move of the off season was hiring the legendary Bill Russell as head coach. Russell was the owner of eleven championship rings, including two as a player / head coach, and a Civil Rights champion. He was always part of the NBA GOAT conversation. This was bigger than any roster move. This was going to put Sacramento on the map. (Insert record scratch sound here again – man, we’re going to ruin a lot of vinyl as this series progresses.)
I’ll leave it to Jerry to chime in on the Bill Russell experience, as Jerry was right there in the trenches. Suffice to say that the 17-41 coaching record before getting kicked upstairs was not what anyone was envisioning when Russell first arrived in Sacramento. The versatile Mr. Reynolds once again came on to sweep up after the elephants, with a 7-17 record coaching a roster that knew that its season was long over.
The Draft
Kenny Smith was the prized pick of 1987 for the Kings, drafted right in between Scottie Pippen and Kevin Johnson. Smith would go on to become the greatest broadcaster of the bunch, and certainly his time in Sacramento elevated his “gone fishin’” game.
My favorite thing about looking back on Smith’s rookie season is that it lists him as finishing second in the Rookie of the Year voting. Upon closer inspection, one finds that Mark Jackson received 77 of the 80 votes, with Smith, Winston Garland and Greg Anderson getting one vote each. Ooh, so close!
Smith’s rookie season was actually encouraging, the team’s 24-58 record notwithstanding. He was third on the team in minutes despite missing 21 games, making him the first rookie in Sacramento’s brief history to truly crack the top of the core rotation as a rook. He overtook Reggie Theus for the team lead in assists per game (7.1 to 6.3), which I’m guessing did not thrill Reggie all that much (for all of Theus’ assists over the years, he was a much, much, much more willing shooter than passer).
The Rest of The Roster
The Kings also traded Eddie Johnson the summer of 1987 for former NCAA champ and slayer of Patrick Ewing Ed Pinckney. Pinckney under the tutelage of Bill Russell? I smell a championship run! Pinckney wound up fighting Jawann Oldham for the 4th slot in the front line rotation, behind Otis Thorpe, Joe Kleine, and LaSalle Thompson.
Thorpe’s last season in Sacramento was also his best season in Sacramento, a team best 20.8 ppg / 10.2 rpg. Thorpe would go on to make an All-Star game in Houston, win a championship in Houston, and play 17 seasons / 1257 games / 39,822 minutes. When the Kings traded Thorpe prior to the beginning of the 1988 season, they received Rodney McCray and Jim Petersen in return, both somewhat solid and unspectacular players.
Derek Smith suited for 35 games. The future of the franchise, the one that sent their impending #6 pick packing, was 10th on the team in minutes.
Fun stat: Mike McGee led the team in threes taken with 141, despite being 11th in minutes at only 886. The team (other than McGee) took a three every 12 minutes. McGee took one every 6 minutes. His 34% conversion rate was 20 percentage points better than the team average. It was fun to watch him chuck ‘em, but surely such shenanigans would not be sustainable in the rough and tumble NBA.
Reynolds’ Wrap: “This marked a very interesting time for me since Bill Russell replaced me after my interim coaching stint. What I was never told by owner Gregg Lukenbill or GM Joe Axelson happened to be the minor surprise of Russell being hired prior to my being inserted as Interim Coach. I didn’t blame Bill for that, but did feel resentment toward Gregg and Joe for a short period of time. I would have did my best regardless. Also, that marked the closest I ever came to leaving Sacramento. Del Harris of Milwaukee offered an assistant coaching job, but Axelson offered the same money to join Bill and Willis Reed to form the 3 R’s staff. Yep, huge money – a 75/85 two-year deal .Still living large and working with two of my heroes. A learning curve ahead!” – Jerry Reynolds
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The new arena beckoned in the distance, and I was going in with two other guys on a pair of season tickets. Live, in-person NBA basketball on a regular basis awaited, as I readied myself for my next step in Kings fandom. All I had to do was Wait ‘til Next Year.