Is there a Kings fan who doesn’t hate the Maloofs right now? Interesting how the Sacramento Kings fortunes have risen and fallen this year with the arena deal.

Sacramento busted its butt to get an arena deal done. Everyone was happy (including the Maloofs). Fans were energized. The team was balling against the best in the league.

Then George Maloof pulled a George Maloof. Looking for any way possible to torpedo an arena deal (again) he seems to have found a way, and at the same time pissed off the mayor, city council, thousands of fans, Commissioner Stern, and many who follow the NBA.

Way to go George! Because when you publicly celebrate a deal but then can’t break out the checkbook for the first check, and apparently can’t make the deal financially work, and then nuke the deal even after the NBA offers you an incredible $7 million plus a $60 million dollar loan to get the arena done (so you don’t have to pull out your thin checkbook), it means you never wanted a deal.

Emotions are raw today. A lot of people are willing to tell the Maloofs to get lost and be a 3rd rate afterthought behind the Lakers and Clippers in SoCal. We’ll see what the future holds.

As for Jimmer? He’s stuck on a team with the lowest payroll in the league. A team that can’t seem to win despite being loaded with lottery picks, and another high pick on the way. A team that is essentially a minor league farm team to the rest of the league. The Kings draft the players, then when contracts are up, since the Maloofs cannot afford to pay they dump talent to the league’s elite teams. In return they sometimes accept just cash for making a deal. It’s embarrassing.

Are the Maloofs the worst owners in professional sports? Are there any other owners that already owe their city tens of millions of dollars AND owe the NBA a reported hundred million more?

Oh yeah, the Kings lost tonight. No one cared.

Ownership matters. Bad owners have bad teams. Good owners have perpetually good teams.

Kings fans deserve better. So does Jimmer.

Although Jimmer warmed the bench virtually the entire game, he was in at the very end to try and win it with a 3-point shot. Not surprisingly, being cold, shooting from verrry long range – miss – to further drag down the shooting percentage.

Sports Illustrated has noted the growing fan frustration over Jimmer's playing time. In a recent article the national publication confirms the fan desire to see Jimmer play and coach Smart's response.

This is where it gets dicey as SI questions the coach's ability to see talent:

“But as if the Fredette fallout weren’t enough to deal with for Smart, he now has the unwelcome distinction of being the coach who missed on Jeremy Lin. Before Lin, born and bred in the Bay Area, emerged in New York, the undrafted Harvard product played just 29 games as a Golden State rookie under Smart last year while making two trips to the NBA Development League. Fans would call for him to play late in games, then go wild in the rare times when he actually did. (Lin, it should be noted, struggled on many occasions.) Smart also was criticized for his handling of Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, a factor in his firing, according to owner Joe Lacob.”

Ouch.

But to be fair a lot of teams whiffed on Jeremy Lin and did not realize his potential. There is no denying, however, that Lin’s talents have exploded in productivity once released from Smart’s coaching.

Are sports fans today smarter than the coaches?

Think of the massive fan demand for the Broncos to play Tim Tebow (including a billboard) and the fantastic turnaround in Denver from the worst team in the league to a playoff winner.

Linsanity.

Jimmer Time!

As this site has previously noted, other Kings players are not regularly passing the ball to Jimmer for him to take good shots. When the ball moves to the paint and shots get tough, when was the last time you saw a kick-out to a wide open Jimmer?

- Is this a coaching instruction?
- An implied coaching instruction caused by Jimmer’s benching?
- A good playing decision since Jimmer’s shot percentage is lacking?
- Because Jimmer is not trusted?
- Designed to hurt Jimmer?

Here are a couple interesting quotes from Sports Illustrated:

“His team doesn’t trust him yet,” Smart said. “That’s a big weight for a guy to be on the floor trying to play through something, and the team doesn’t respect him yet. Now once that player is strong enough to carry himself and be on the floor and be productive, you start to see the confidence from his team now coming to his side.”

Has Isaiah Thomas been that much better to earn the team’s respect? Isaiah’s stats are better than Jimmers – but not immensely different.

Thomas does push the ball faster and has an intensity and quickness stats do not reflect.

How much is the following a factor?

Coach Smart: “Earlier in the season, they weren’t feeling that because, quote-unquote, there’s still a little jealousy in the air. Here comes a guy who’s high profile, [and] it has nothing to do with the player. But he’s coming into the team, has been marketed [by] the team, and everyone else on the outside sees that, and players hear that too. But the player may not be ready for what he’s getting ready to face.”

Despite criticisms of Coach Smart, this is breathtakingly honest and an insight from a good coach. Jimmer has to do more because more is expected due to fan pressure. That is not always fair to Jimmer.

But the quote also begs the question of whether ‘jealousy’ means other players wouldn’t mind seeing Jimmermania being taken down a notch. Even though no player would admit or acknowledge this issue, their play may be subconsciously affected. Why let Jimmer score if it will just feed the jealousy?

And is there also a bit of immaturity that Jimmer has to overcome? Maybe immaturity is not the most precise word, but perhaps it takes time getting used to a change from a sheltered life at BYU to the rough and tumble atmosphere of an NBA team where a young rookie is expected to perform against grizzled veterans.

For sure, nothing is given to you in the NBA. Accomplishments are earned.

As Jimmer himself notes, his playing time at BYU started the same. Almost the same playing time and points as he is having now with the Kings. And then a few years later …