Kings’ magical season is over. But their bright future in the NBA is just getting started

The run is over. But the demons of the past are tucked away for good, buried somewhere under Golden 1 Center.

Seattle. Anaheim. Chris Hansen. None of them matter now for a Sacramento Kings franchise that took its city and its fan base on a magical ride over these past seven months, one that exceeded so many expectations. The season came to a crashing end with a 120-100 loss Sunday to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA playoffs, bouncing the Kings from the first round.

Still, the playoff drought, one that lasted 17 years, was snapped. This team has charted a new course.

Ten years ago Saturday, the NBA’s relocation committee voted against a proposal to move the Kings to Seattle. That result had seemed impossible a few weeks earlier; how could sleepy Sacramento outrun Seattle and Hansen, the wealthy hedge fund manager who was just the latest out-of-town billionaire with his eyes on the Kings?

And it wasn’t just 2013. For years, the NBA postseason was filled with anxiety in this town. The Kings seemed perpetually up for grabs to the highest bidder. Sacramento, a government town without billionaires, didn’t seem to stand a chance against powerful outside forces.

Gary Gerould still feels ill when he thinks about it. Gerould broadcast his 3,000th game as the Kings radio play-by-play caller this season, a role he has held since 1985. Here he was Sunday about to call a deciding game in the playoffs.

“It’s an interesting perspective from a number of standpoints,” he said in an interview about 90 minutes before tip-off, dressed as always in a clean business suit. “The drama of a game seven, the rarity of a game seven and of course the importance.

“But I think sometimes when you try to look at the big picture, we’re guilty of forgetting 10 years ago how close we were to losing the franchise. And when I think about that, I quiver inside. There was so much angst and so much drama and so much legitimate fear that it was all going to come to an end. And thank goodness it didn’t.”

Now we have moments like these.

A season, full circle

Hours before the game began, Downtown Commons – the centerpiece entertainment district that replaced a dying outdoor mall at Seventh and K streets – was packed. Fans chanted “Sacramento” and waved flags. By the time arena public address announcer Scott Moak began the Kings player introductions, his voice was drowned out by a sea of towel-waving fans in a frenzy.

The crowd seemed to will the Kings to keep the game close. Stephen Curry missed consecutive free throws in the first half as the crowd roared, seeking to distract one of the game’s greatest shooters. At one point in third quarter, the Warriors had barely made 50% of their free throws.

In the end, Curry would take over with a 50-point night and the Warriors’ mettle proved to be too much for the young Kings.

They took the Warriors to seven games in Sacramento’s first playoff series since 2006, absorbing every punch, every stomp to the chest the defending NBA champions shot their way. If the Kings are to vault to the league’s class of elite teams, one day they will have to surpass their Northern California rivals.

The series felt full circle. Instead of an April spent worrying about whether the Kings would move, fans were talking about … basketball. Just like the old days.

Kings coach Mike Brown, the league’s coach of the year and who may deserve more credit than anyone for the team’s surprising run this season, was having dinner at Selland’s in the El Dorado Hills Town Center on Saturday night. A group of young boys approached to pepper him with questions.

How is Domantas Sabonis feeling? How is De’Aaron Fox’s broken finger? Is Keegan Murray’s confidence back? Are we going to win or what, coach?

“You could just feel the excitement in their little hearts,” Brown said, “and you know the rest of Sacramento is just beaming with pride.”

Revived fan energy

Casey Gibson and his 6-year-old son, Easton, were in line to get into Golden 1 Center nearly two hours before the doors opened Sunday. Casey’s dad took him to his first Kings game in the 1990s, around the time the playoffs started to become an annual ritual in Sacramento. After a run of success in Sacramento, the era of missed opportunities and uncertainty began.

Jimmer Fredette was drafted, and Klay Thompson went to the Warriors with the following pick. The Kings picked another draft bust in Thomas Robinson in 2012, one spot before Portland got future Hall of Famer Damian Lillard.

All the while, the threat of relocation loomed. Sacramento was shot down as a host of the men’s NCAA basketball tournament, in part because Arco Arena, their former home in North Natomas, wasn’t good enough. City leaders, led by former Mayor Kevin Johnson, responded by starting a nearly decade-long odyssey to keep the franchise. It culminated in a new ownership group led by Vivek Ranadivé, the NBA’s rejection of the Seattle move and the construction of the $534 million Golden 1 Center in downtown.

This season is likely the closest the Kings fan base has come to recreating the energy and optimism of the spring of 2013. The franchise snapped a 16-season playoff drought, the longest in NBA history. Fox and Sabonis are the foundation of a young core. Both were All-Stars this season. The beam was lit more than 50 times.

“(This season) brought people together,” Gibson said. “It’s something everyone in Sacramento could get behind.”

A fan base’s loyalty is finally being rewarded. Patti Anderson has been a season ticket holder for nearly 30 years, and a Kings fan since they moved here in 1985. She used to share season tickets with three other fans, but one-by-one the others bailed, the last one in 2016.

Anderson missed just three home games this season. Walking through Downtown Commons in her purple Kings-themed pajamas Sunday morning, she could barely hold her emotions in check. But she had to be there for her team, just like her team is here now.

“They need me,” she said. “They need all of us.”

They’ll need Anderson again next season in Sacramento. There are new demons to expel.