For this California family, the Warriors-Kings rivalry started long before the NBA playoffs

Robert and Carmel Sangco have been happily partnered for 16 years. But the couple can’t refrain from a healthy dose of smack talk – especially when their teams are locked head-to-head in NorCal’s first NBA playoff matchup.

“Honestly, I can say that I’m kind of like the queen of clap-backs now, thanks to him,” said Carmel, 40, a lifelong Warriors fan. “I’ve been able to fine tune that being with him.”

She and husband Robert, 52, an avid Kings supporter, took turns jabbing at each other while watching Game 1 on April 15, a Saturday night, at the 7th Street Standard.

“Nope!” they would each shout when an opposing player let fly a poor shot.

The bar erupted whenever the Kings drained a basket. When the Warriors hit a shot, Carmel’s claps and whoops stood alone. After she applauded a clutch 3-pointer from Klay Thompson in the third quarter, a sassy Kings fan at the bar turned around and remarked, “Hey, yo, just wanted to check – are you OK?”

“Oh yeah, I’m doing great, how about you?” Carmel clapped back in response. “Are you doing OK?”

For all their taunts and jests though, the couple insists their rivalry is all in good fun.

“For me, it’s only a game, so like, win or lose, it’s not a big deal,” Carmel said. “You’ve gotta roll with the punches.”

That’s easy for a Warriors fan to say, though, having won four rings in the last nine years, with the series tied at 2-2 and returning to the Golden 1 Center Wednesday.

When Kings pulled out a Game 1 win, the streets of downtown Sacramento exploded in a craze of cowbells and “LIGHT THE BEAM” chants. As the couple walked through DoCo that night, Carmel in her Warriors gear became a lightning rod for controversy and what she called some “classless” taunts.

Her husband, caught up in his own euphoria over the victory, provided no help.

“It was just 17 years of pent-up energy,” Carmel said. “He was like, ‘You can hang,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know!’”

A Kings-Warriors marriage

Walk around Carmel and Robert’s Elk Grove home and you might not know right away it’s a house divided.

But look a little closer and you’ll catch glimpses of their deep, dedicated rivalry. The couple outfitted a two-player retro arcade table with Kings-versus-Warriors decals so they could rep their teams while facing off in Pac-Man.

Secluded in the garage sits Robert’s collection of framed vintage Kings posters. He’s been trying to hang them up ever since they moved into the residence eight years ago, but hasn’t found the time or the perfect spot.

And out back, they have a half court and hoop, which Robert plans to paint violet and gray and maybe add “Kings Court” for good measure.

“Carmel’s gonna be mad about that, but I don’t care, it’s my court!” he said. “She can’t repaint it.”

Carmel remembers the Warriors played the Kings for her first NBA game. The Stockton native can’t recall precisely what year – sometime in the late 1990s – but she knows the Warriors weren’t good. The Kings, on the other hand, were on the cusp of their golden years. And because Stockton is less than an hour away from the River City, many of her friends had grown up Kings fans.

Her brother loved the Warriors though, so she claimed them as her hometown team. When the two teams faced off in her first game, she and her friends cheered like crazy from their $10 nosebleed seats in Oakland’s Oracle Arena.

“We sat in the very last row,” Carmel said. “It was just friends – no chaperones, no nothing – so that was, like, the best time.”

At the end of the game, which she thinks the Warriors won, the melodic call of “Waaar-iors, Waaar-iors” from Golden State fans clashed with the rhythmic staccato of “Sac-raah-men-toh” from the Kings faithful.

Robert, on the other hand, immigrated to the U.S. from the Philippines at age 13, and his family settled in San Diego. There, he did something that some Kings fans might consider unforgivable – he became enamored with Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers.

In 1987 though, Robert’s family moved to Sacramento. Within five years, all his favorite Lakers – Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy – had retired.

At 20, he made the switch.

“I just liked the Kings because they weren’t cocky,” Robert said. “The Lakers started getting cocky when Kobe and Shaq started playing there, and I just didn’t like that.”

The couple met in 2006 at a Midtown bar through mutual friends. Because it was the NBA offseason, their team allegiances didn’t come up until about the third month into their relationship. Being a rival couple didn’t mean much at the time.

“Both of our teams sucked,” Carmel said.

But that didn’t last for long. By 2013, the Warriors had fought their way back to the playoffs for just the second time in 19 years, and two years later they took home title No. 1. Robert was a season ticket holder at Arco Arena when the Dubs were heating up, and Carmel was always excited to catch a Warriors game.

“He’d get really passionate and upset,” she said. “I really wouldn’t say much until we actually won,” she continued. “That’s when I knew it was safe to hit him back.”

One time, Robert was so mad at the game that he didn’t speak the entire car ride home. “She knows when I get mad to just calm down and let me be upset,” Robert said.

Carmel had the opportunity to witness two of the four Warriors championship games in person – back-to-back wins in 2017 and 2018. As far as she’s concerned, they don’t have to do anything else to make her a happy fan.

“If we never make the finals again, I’m completely satisfied with what our team has accomplished in the last 10 years,” Carmel said. “You can’t stay on top forever.”

Family feud: The Sangco smack talk

Robert tried to raise both of his kids – son Bobby Sangco, 33, and daughter Kalina Sangco, 26 – as Kings fans. He and Bobby’s mother divorced, though, and Bobby moved to Fremont with his mom and step-dad, who were both avid Warriors fans and season ticket-holders at Oracle Arena. Watching the Warriors take on some of the best players in the NBA, such as Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, were some of the highlights of his childhood.

“Going to games just became kind of like a ritual for me,” Bobby said. “It was an exciting time.”

Bobby was there for their last game in Oracle Arena – an unfortunate loss to the Toronto Raptors that ultimately cost the Dubs a national title.

“Once they got better and we went through those ‘We Believe’ years, you know, that was a big time for me,” Bobby said. “It was an exciting time, and we actually finally were relevant.”

(The Warriors borrowed the “We Believe” slogan from the Kings’ 2004-2005 playoff marketing scheme.)

While Bobby grew up in the Bay, his half-sister Kalina spent her whole life in Sacramento surrounded by Kings fans. Her dad had season tickets at Arco Arena, and she remembers going to all the games and cheering wildly even though the team wasn’t that good.

“We loved watching the Kings no matter what,” Kalina said. “Even if they were a losing team, it was always a fun thing to do.”

Now that both teams are facing off in the playoffs, the Sangco family group chat has more spice than ever. The NorCal battle also gives Kalina a chance to clap back at her brother after years of Warriors dominance.

“Hearing my brother talk about the Warriors all the time, like, it’s just the most irritating thing in the world,” Kalina said. “Why can’t they just be happy for us at the end of the day? They already got like four rings.”

Those rings are a point of pride for Bobby and Carmel. Any time Robert wants to get a rise out of them, he’ll remind them that the Kings are young and hungry, while Warriors stars like Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are getting older. But his son and wife point to the hardware.

“We’re the future, they’re the past,” Robert said. “They hate it when I say it, because they know it’s true. They can argue all we want, but Klay and Steph have about two good years left.”

“Relevance requires rings,” is Carmel’s response.

“That don’t mean nothing,” Robert declared. “That’s in the past.”

Bobby also likes to remind his dad and sister that the Kings’ head coach Mike Brown and forward Harrison Barnes came from the Warriors lineage.

“They’re benefiting from their previous Warrior experience,” Bobby said.

His sister doesn’t buy it.

“But they’re not Warriors anymore, they’re Kings,” Kalina said. “They’re stuck in the past, they’re living on old news!”

So, how did the family handle the Game 2 Draymond Green and Domantas Sabonis skirmish?

“The group chat was on fire,” Kalina said. “And all the Warriors fans have is excuses. They’re full of excuses.”

Sabonis soft, texted Bobby after the Kings knocked off the Warriors yet again.

bro literally just stomped on sabonis WYM!!!!!!! Kalina fired back.

Walk it off ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, Carmel chimed in.

i wanna see yall both get stomped on then walk it off RN, Kalina added. draymond so trashhhhhh lmao

The Sangco smack talk extends beyond just their household. On Tuesday April 18, a friend of theirs sent a photo to one of their group chats of Warriors shirts on clearance at Target. Robert joked they were so cheap that he could use them as rags to clean his company’s transport vans.

I’ve never seen Kings merch being sold until late 2022, Carmel texted.

You never seen kings gear because it sells out so fast Mel, responded another friend.

The banter gets intense sometimes, especially when a trip to the finals sits on the line. But the Sangco siblings agreed the Warriors-Kings faceoff creates a special opportunity for family togetherness – even though the stakes are high.

“It’s definitely a bonding experience,” Bobby said. “It gives everyone a reason to come together as a family with, you know, how busy the world can get nowadays and the internet and things like that.”

The family plans to go to Game 5 when the teams return to Golden 1 Center.

Despite their gibes, Carmel and Bobby say they would support their loved ones and cheer for Sacramento if the Kings topple the Warriors in the first round. The four championships they witnessed in the Bay Area were life-changing, and Kings fans have waited hungrily for 17 years for another shot at a ring.

“If they could experience that, I think that’d be awesome for them,” Bobby said. “Those four rings that I got to experience here in the Bay Area are some of the highlights of my life so far.”

They cautioned, though, that no one should count the Warriors out – especially with their backs to the wall. And even if the Kings manage to survive and advance, they have a long way to go before they can consider themselves on par with Golden State.

“It isn’t over yet,” he added, “and even if they get past the first round, they do have four rings to catch up to.”

Whichever team loses, they’re bound to face some ridicule from the other side of the family.

“Whoever gets knocked out, it’s going to be a loooooong offseason and never-ending smack talk at the dinner table, in the group chat, or any argument involving basketball,” Bobby said. “Until we get to see each other again in the playoffs.”

Robert said he wanted the Kings to face the Warriors in the first round. It’s payback time for all the years when they were good, and the Kings were abysmal. And he believes the Kings can do more than just survive and advance. With their deep bench and youthful hunger, they could go all the way to the finals and bring home a ring.

“It doesn’t matter who we throw out there,” he said, “we’re going to score. It reminds me of the old Kings.”

Kalina said she’ll be happy for the team even if they don’t make it out of the first round.

“Regardless of the outcome, I’m happy for my boys,” she said. “I feel like we can only get better, and this is a big learning step for us.”

But if the Kings lose the series, Robert says the digs from Bobby and Carmel will be insufferable.

“I’ll be very, very, very disappointed,” Robert said. “I’ve been talking a lot. And I know we’re a better team.”

Losing just isn’t an option, in his mind.

“That would kill me.”