One of the greatest players in Kings franchise history is returning to the capital city for tomorrow’s celebration in Downtown Sacramento.  Five-time NBA All-Star Chris Webber is among the guests scheduled to appear at the “Long Live The Kings Rally” taking place Thursday, May 23 from 5-9 pm at Cesar Chavez Plaza.

Former players joining Webber are Kings legend and new minority investor Mitch Richmond along with Scot Pollard and Bobby Jackson.  The Kings current starting backcourt of Tyreke Evans and Isaiah Thomas will also be at tomorrow’s rally.

Members of the Kings new ownership group are attending as well, including new Kings majority owner Vivek Ranadivé and general partners Dr. Paul Jacobs, Raj Bhathal, Mark Mastrov, Mark Friedman, Andrew Miller and Chris Kelly.  Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson will also make an appearance.

The rally will include musical performances by a number of musical acts, including Paul and Chord Everstreet, local rapper Alex Johnson and Tesla guitarist Frank Hannon.  Acclaimed performance painter David Garibaldi, a Sacramento native, is also part of the program.

Tomorrow’s rally was originally planned for today.  However, it was pushed back primarily due to scheduling purposes to ensure all guests could attend.  There was also the matter of the Downtown Farmer’s Market, which happens every Wednesday at Cesar Chavez Park.

Alternative rock band Cake was also slated to perform at the rally according to the mayor last week.  However, their availability was not yet finalized due to “staff miscommunication” according to the mayor’s office.

Gates open at 5 pm for this free, public event.

After more than two years of fighting to keep their team, Sacramento Kings fans put there money where their mouths were yesterday, overwhelming the team’s ticket sales staff when they opened for business at 9 am.

“We don’t have enough bodies to handle the inbound requests,” Kings Vice President of Ticket Sales Phil Horn told Cowbell Kingdom.  “Our initial launch raced at one deposit every four seconds.”

Tuesday marked the first day that new prospective season ticket holders could place a $200 deposit for the 2013-14 season.  With interest at an all-time high, the Kings are scrambling to hire up to 40 new ticket sales reps to handle the traffic.

The Kings are way behind the rest of the league in the ticket sales process.  With constant uncertainty surrounding the future of the franchise this year, the team withheld renewals until this weekend and then opened the floodgates to potential new seat holders on Tuesday.If the massive surge of ticket buyers wasn’t enough, the ticket sales team performed over 100 interviews Monday and another 80 yesterday to fill those spots.  They hoped to have a makeshift staff in place, ready to start the enormous task of finding homes for the massive influx of new ticket requests.

Vivek Ranadivé and his investment group agreed to purchase the Kings from the Maloofs late last week, causing phone lines in the ticket sales office to light up.  Sensing the surge in excitement, Ranadivé sent a letter this weekend to existing season ticket holders.

“Today we begin a new era in Sacramento Kings history: new ownership, a new arena and a new Kings community,” Ranadivé wrote.  “We will do everything in our power to make this organization one that you can be proud of, both on and off the court.”

There is a lot of work ahead for this group, but it appears that bringing the fans back after a dismal seven-year stretch is going to take care of itself.

The Sacramento Kings now know where they will be picking in the 2013 NBA Draft.  Following the league’s annual lottery, the Kings earned the seventh overall pick in next month’s draft, which takes place June 27 at the Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn.

“My lucky number 7,” new Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé tweeted shortly after the lottery results were revealed. “(Day) I was born 7, (Stephen) Curry picked at 7, (Harrison) Barnes at 7, seven is heaven.”

When it came to moving up in the order, the odds were not in the Kings favor.  The Kings had a 6.3 percent chance of winning the right to select first in the league’s annual draft.  By comparison, they had a 30.44 percent chance of moving down to the seventh selection.

This is the second time in three years that the Kings will own the seventh pick in the NBA Draft.  Sacramento had the same pick in the 2011 Draft, but ended up trading the selection for John Salmons and the rights to Jimmer Fredette in a three-team deal with the Milwaukee Bucks and Charlotte Bobcats.

Including 2011, the Kings have owned the seventh choice in the NBA Draft five times in franchise history.  In 1990, the Kings selected Lionel Simmons with the seventh pick.  In 1992, they chose Walt Williams out of Maryland.  In 1993, they drafted Bobby Hurley out of Duke.  And finally in 1998, they chose Jason Williams, who, along with Chris Webber, Vlade Divac and Peja Stojakovic, ushered in the the greatest era of basketball in Kings franchise history.

The Kings moved down in this year’s draft due to the Washington Wizards ascendence in the order.  The Wizards owned the seventh best odds of winning this year’s lottery and ended up with third pick.  The Orlando Magic, who owned the best odds, fell to the second pick, while the Cleveland Cavaliers won the right to choose first for the third time in 10 years.

Notable players picked seventh overall

• 2012 – Harrison Barnes, Warriors
• 2010 – Greg Monroe, Pistons
• 2009 – Stephen Curry, Warriors
• 2004 – Luol Deng, Suns
• 2003 – Kirk Hinrich, Bulls
• 2002 – Nene Hilario, Nuggets
• 1999 – Richard Hamilton, Wizards
• 1998 – Jason Williams, Kings
• 1997 – Damon Stoudamire, Raptors
• 1991 – Luc Longley, Timberwolves
• 1987 – Kevin Johnson, Cavaliers
• 1985 – Chris Mullin, Warriors
• 1979 – Vinnie Johnson, Sonics
• 1977 – Bernard King, Nets
• 1967 – Pat Riley, Rockets
• 1965 – Billy Cunningham, 76ers

The new owners of the Sacramento Kings are taking another major step in the process toward building a brand new arena for the team.  According to the Sacramento Bee, the investor group led by Vivek Ranadivé is purchasing the Downtown Plaza.

Mark Friedman, one of the Kings’ newest owners, told the Bee that the investor team has “a contract to purchase the site”, with the exception of the Macy’s men’s and furniture store at the plaza’s west end,.  JMA will however continue to operate the aging mall.

JMA Ventures will remain a partner in the development project, Friedman said, and will bring retail and lifestyle mall development expertise to the broader project, which sits on six key blocks downtown between 4th and 7th streets, and J and L streets. Most of the existing Downtown Plaza structures will be torn down. The arena is expected to be situated in the center of the site, taking up less than two blocks.

“The nice thing is there is a complete identity of ownership between the arena and all the surrounding uses,” Friedman said. “JMA will be working as our developer/consultant to make these recommendations.”

Friedman said his personal company, Fulcrum Property, will serve as arena developer for the new Kings ownership group, which is led by Silicon Valley entrepreneur Vivek Ranadive.

JMA purchased the Downtown Plaza last August for approximately $21.7 million.  The purchase price of the site by the Ranadivé group remains unknown at this time.

Update: 8:37 pm

The Bee’s Ryan Lillis is reporting that JMA is backing off earlier confirmation that they plan to sell the plaza to the Ranadivé Group.

JMA backs off earlier statement, now says “the sale of Sacramento’s Downtown Plaza (to Kings group) cannot be confirmed at this point.”

— Ryan Lillis (@Ryan_Lillis) May 22, 2013

Now Mayor KJ says he’s “grateful to JMA and Ron Burkle” for “partnering with Mark Friedman and the investor group to build an arena.”

— Ryan Lillis (@Ryan_Lillis) May 22, 2013

Speaking on the Dan Patrick Show this morning, the former Bulls and Lakers head coach said he had an agreement with prospective Sonics owner Chris Hansen to head to the Pacific Northwest.  Jackson told Patrick that Hansen’s vision for the franchise was something he could “buy into.”

“I thought he was dynamic,” Jackson said.  ”I thought he had great ideas.  He went through the whole process of getting an arena.

“He did everything right except win the franchise.”

Jackson said that Hansen offered him whatever role he wanted with the Sonics.  From consultant, part-ownership or even a return to the sidelines, anything was up for grabs for the winningest coach in NBA history if he decided to join the Sonics.

“I thought he had the right vision for a team and he made basically the offer of take what you want to take as a job,” Jackson said.  ”I mean, it didn’t matter to him.”

Hansen had a deal to purchase controlling interest of the Kings from the Maloof family for approximately $406 million.  That deal died last week after the NBA’s board of governors voted 22-8 to block the franchise’s move to Seattle.  The Maloofs then agreed to sell the Kings to the ownership group led by TIBCO founder Vivek Ranadivé at a $535-million valuation of the franchise.

Now that the Kings are staying in Sacramento, Jackson suggested that he doesn’t have interest in coming to the capital city.  In an appearance on the Tonight Show on NBC last Thursday, Jackson told Jay Leno that he wouldn’t “be doing the job in Sacramento”.

“I like Sacramento,” Jackson said. “Well, not that much.”

You can see Jackson’s comments to Dan Patrick in the video below at the 11:55 mark.

Updated at 3:51 pm.

The Sacramento Kings are in the NBA Draft Lottery for a seventh-straight year. In accordance with that, we have compiled seven facts about the Kings and lottery throughout the franchise’s 28 seasons in the capital city.

1. Tonight marks the 28th running of the league’s annual draft lottery. It has been in existence for as long as the Kings have been in Sacramento.

2. The Kings have finished with the sixth-best odds of winning the lottery on four different occasions. In 1992, they dropped to the seventh spot and took Walt Williams out of Maryland with their pick. In 1990, they also fell down one spot and ended up selecting Lionel Simmons with the seventh overall choice. In 1987, they finished and selected sixth, choosing Kenny Smith out of North Carolina. And in 1985, their inaugural season in Sacramento, the Kings also stayed at the six spot, where they selected Joe Kleine out of Arkansas.

3. The Kings have a 6.3 percent chance of winning this year’s draft lottery. They possessed the same odds when they won the lottery in 1989. With the first pick in the draft, the Kings took Pervis Ellison that year.

4. In their 28 year history in Sacramento, the Kings have won the right to choose first just once. Atlanta, Dallas and Toronto are the only other teams that’ve earned the No. 1 pick just once in the lottery era.

5. With 18 lottery picks, the Kings rank third behind just the Clippers and Warriors in most lottery picks all time. The Clippers (22) don’t own a lottery choice for a third-straight year while the Warriors (20) are without one for the first time since 2007.

6. Since it moved to its current format in 1994, the team with the sixth best odds has won the draft lottery just twice. In 2005, the Milwaukee Bucks won the first overall pick and selected Andrew Bogut out of Utah. In 2007, the Portland TrailBlazers won the lotto and selected Greg Oden out of Ohio State.

7. The Kings currently possess the longest active streak of draft lottery appearances.

Sacramento Kings 2013 Draft Lottery Odds

Hover over the columns for exact percentages.

With the relocation saga behind us, there is actual basketball to return to in Sacramento and it begins Tuesday with the NBA Draft Lottery.  A source within the Kings orgaization has confirmed to Cowbell Kingdom that  Keith Smart will represent the team in New York tomorrow night.

Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee was first to report the news.  Cowbell Kingdom was told the decision to send the Kings head coach was made a few weeks ago by the Maloofs.  The current Kings owners are still awaiting formal approval by the NBA to sell controlling interest of the team to TIBCO founder Vivek Ranadivé and company.

While Smart will represent the club on Tuesday night, there are no assurances that he will be back with the team for the 2013-14 season.  The ownership group is expected to make dramatic changes to the front office and coaching staff once the stake is transferred.  Smart has one year remaining on the deal he signed when he took over as Kings coach eight games into the 2011-12 season.

The Kings currently sit with the sixth best odds in the draft lottery, meaning they have just a 6.3 percent chance of moving into the top spot. The Kings will potentially select at either No. 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 8 or 9 in the 2013 Draft, which takes place on Thursday, June 27.  Several mock drafts are projecting Kentucky Wildcats’ big man Nerlens Noel is to be chosen with the first overall pick.

 Long Live the Kings Rally Announced for Thursday at Cesar Chavez Park

– Join Vivek Ranadivé, Mayor Johnson and more to celebrate team’s rich history and exciting future in Sacramento; 1985-Forever-

SACRAMENTO – The Sacramento Kings today announced LONG LIVE THE KINGS RALLY will take place Thursday, May 23 from 5-9 p.m. at Cesar Chavez Park in Downtown Sacramento.

Kings fans across the region are invited to join Vivek Ranadivé in his first public appearance as the team’s majority owner, along with Mayor Kevin Johnson, Slamson, Kings Dancers and special guests to celebrate the Sacramento community for its unwavering commitment to the team.

This rally is an opportunity for Kings fans, the city and region to come together and celebrate the beginning of a lifetime of Kings basketball in Sacramento. Featuring a live musical performance, this FREE event will pay tribute to the many generations of Kings fans – from those who sported tuxedos and gowns on Opening Night in 1985 to those who attended their first game in 2013.

Fans interested in attending are encouraged to rock their favorite Kings threads and to share their rally experience on social media platforms using #LLTKRally for a chance to be featured by the Kings on-screen at the event and online.

Complete details of rally programming will be revealed on Kings.com in the days leading up to the festivities.

Due to high demand for new season tickets, fans interested in locking-in their seats for the 2013-14 campaign are advised to place their $200, non-refundable deposit on Kings.com at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, May 21, as it’s the fastest way to ensure a high priority number for the Kings Select-A-Seat event in June. Seat selection priority will be determined by timestamp of deposit. Fans may also place a deposit beginning at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, May 21 by calling 888-91-KINGS.

Kings.com is currently receiving, on average, one new season ticket inquiry every 3 minutes.

Vivek Ranadivé went before the NBA Board of Governors and pitched his vision of “NBA 3.0”. By all accounts, aside from the Seattle and Maloofs camp, the new owner of the Sacramento Kings blew away the league with a plan of global expansion that all begins with his new franchise.

I’m intrigued by the idea of millions of people in India tuning in to watch the purple and black. But before that happens, there needs to be a hard reset of this franchise.

That is what happens to a computer that’s become so corrupted from the inside. From top to bottom, a facelift is needed before Ranadivé and the NBA try to pitch the Kings to anyone outside the 916.

We need to see “Sacramento Kings 2013”, a complex overhaul of one of the league’s worst franchises.

I’m not talking about players so much and I’m certainly not suggesting that all 800-1000 arena employees need replacing. There are some incredible people out there that have been through absolute hell over the last three years.

I’m talking about how this team needs a new identity and a voice at the top. Someone who can attempt to rebuild this franchise from the ground up.

For the last 19 years, Geoff Petrie, not the Maloofs, has been the brains behind the Kings’ product on-the-court. It was Petrie who assembled the 1995-96 team that broke a 10-year playoff drought and it was the magic of Petrie that brought us the greatest eight-year run in franchise history.

There was a time when Petrie couldn’t miss. His crowning moment came before the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season when he traded for Chris Webber, signed Vlade Divac, drafted Jason Williams and talked Peja Stojakovic into coming over from Greece.

That team was pure basketball genius and to Petrie’s credit, the hiring of Rick Adelman to coach was spot on. Not only did Petrie sustain an incredibly high level of performance from that group, but he added pieces along the way that made the Kings one of the best teams of the early 2000s.

But it appears that Petrie has lost the Midas touch. Sure, the current Kings roster has talent, but the swings and misses are beyond egregious.

Drafting Thomas Robinson with the fifth pick, a player who refused  to visit Sacramento during pre-draft workouts, instead of Rookie of the Year Damian Lillard will haunt the Kings for the next decade. And bailing out on Robinson before the All-Star Game just compounded the mistake.

People will blame the Maloofs for that move. They will point to the millions saved for the Kings former owners by dumping Francisco Garcia’s expiring contract and they might even champion Patrick Patterson as atonement.

But Petrie did have a choice. He could have walked away from the final three months of his contract. He could have said “no, that is not how I want to be remembered” and people around the country would have applauded the former two-time NBA executive of the year.

Petrie could have walked away anytime from 2006 when the Maloofs began to make their intentions clear. Petrie was coming off an incredible run and he was extremely marketable. Instead of looking for a better situation, he stuck around and watched, while the Maloofs systematically ran the Kings into the ground.

It began with the decision to not retain Adelman following the 2005-06 season, a longtime friend of Petrie’s and the most successful coach in franchise history. Over the next seven years, Petrie turned to four new head coaches (not including interim head coach Kenny Natt). He was in the room when Eric Musselman, Reggie Theus, Paul Westphal and Keith Smart were hired to run the club. A string of budget picks for sure, but again, this was Petrie’s reputation on the line, not the Maloofs.

And when these coaches struggled with the players that Petrie had brought, he allowed the Maloofs to override the good judgment of his people on the ground on disciplinary issues. In fact, he approved the letter Paul Westphal released to the media regarding DeMarcus Cousins’ trade demand just hours before a Sunday home game then asked the Maloof family to cut Westphal his final check two days later when the letter was received poorly.

“However, when a player continually, aggressively, lets it be known that he is unwilling/unable to embrace traveling in the same direction as his team, it cannot be ignored indefinitely,” Westphal wrote in his letter released to the media.

Instead of backing the coach that put on “clinics” for season ticket holders at local gyms during a league-wide lockout, Petrie sent him packing after just seven games of a 66-game schedule, describing Westphal as taking a “philosophical vacation.”

Coaching decisions aren’t the only mistakes on Petrie’s resumé the last seven seasons. Remember Mikki Moore? How about the more than $30 million he offered Bonzi Wells or the stack of cash John Salmons made the first time around when he had nowhere else to sign? Petrie lived and died by the mid-level exception. And when he wasn’t overpaying on the open market, he competed against himself for his own players like Francisco Garcia, Beno Udrih and Marcus Thornton.

In the changing world of the NBA, this basketball legend has not exactly adapted well. The league has turned to the versatile player that Petrie used to pull out of his hat in every draft. And the league has turned to advanced statistics to define the search for talent.

Petrie has bucked the trends, leaving the Kings organization a step behind. Was it hubris or arrogance? I’m not sure that we will get that answer, but the modern basketball front man looks for every advantage in his search to compete – especially when he’s forced to clip coupons to sign talent.

It’s a difficult reality, but Petrie chose to stay in Sacramento under the Maloofs reign. Kings fans have lived by the mantra “In Petrie We Trust” and in return, they have received a 187-371 record in the seven seasons since the Kings’ last playoff run.

The new ownership group has a lot to consider when they walk through the doors of Sleep Train Arena this week. They need to come in with a blueprint for success, but also with an idea of how this situation got to where it is today.

Geoff Petrie had seven years to either fix or walk away from this once-sinking ship.  It’s time to give someone else a chance to fix the mess.

A letter from new Kings owner Vivek Ranadivé went out to current season ticket holders yesterday, encouraging them to renew.  This is what it said.

Via Niko Rust.