And the emotional roller coaster continues! But before we get into that, last week, I didn’t have room to tell you that at the NBA’s Sales & Marketing Meeting in Miami last week, the Sacramento Kings were named the NBA Team of the Year and also won the NBA Innovation Award for the “Victory Beam” they light after each win. The NBA Team of the Year Award recognizes excellence in team business performance, and there are so many reasons why the Kings won this award. The Kings had the highest number of season ticket renewals in franchise history; nearly 100% of season tickets were renewed, they ranked No. 2 among all NBA teams in ticket revenue growth, they ranked No. 1 in fan in-game experiences, and game viewership for the Kings went up 200%+. Postgame Show viewership went up 177%, and the Kings had ABC’s largest-ever audience for a non-NBA Finals game and the Most-watched 1st Round Playoff Game in 24 years. They also hosted more than 100 community events, impacting nearly 100,000 people.

The Beam, which Google Maps has deemed a “place of worship,” gives fans something to be excited about and something they need to take a picture with when they see the Kings. It‘s just one more reason for the Kings to win so we can Light the Beam. It’s hard to describe the feeling you get at a Kings game: the camaraderie and pure joy when the Kings win, at least… which may get us into our next topic.

The Kings started the week by beating the Charlotte Hornets (not a good team) handily, but don’t get excited; they then lost pretty badly to the Philadelphia 76ers (a good team.) And then the real emotional roller coaster began. On Sunday, January 14th, the Kings played the No. 2 seed in the East, the Milwaukee Bucks, and after a super exciting, back-and-forth battle in overtime, the Kings were up by four with 34 seconds left. At that point, the Bucks played the foul game (fouling on purpose), and if you ever ask yourself why teams do that, this game showed exactly why. Malik Monk, our best free throw shooter, missed TWO in a row, and then De’Aaron Fox missed one out of two. With the Kings only up by two, Damian Lillard showed us “Dame Time” with a 32-foot three-point buzzer-beater from near midcourt to win the Bucks the game. It was heartbreaking! The Kings lost, 142-143.

Next, on Tuesday, January 16th, the Kings blew a 22-point fourth-quarter lead against the Phoenix Suns and ended up losing 117-119. We were tied twice within the last 45 seconds of the game, and the Sun’s Kevin Durant shot four free throws in that time and made them all. It’s a hard lesson for the Kings; they need to do better on free throws and with keeping their leads.

Oh, I forgot to mention that Head Coach Mike Brown was ejected from the Bucks game and subsequently fined $50,000 for “aggressively pursuing” and “publicly criticizing” the officials. He actually went on the court and grabbed an official during the game to yell at him over a missed call, and then he had a laptop out at the press conference showing everyone the missed call. The last time Mike Brown got ejected, his team was able to rally and win the game for him, but it didn’t work this time.

The Kings obviously have a long way to go before becoming a team good enough to win in the playoffs, and I think we can expect some roster changes before the trade deadline of February 8th. Until then, the Kings only have two games this coming week, both at home: against the Indiana Pacers on Thursday, January 18th, and against the Atlanta Hawks on Monday, January 22nd. Go Kings, let’s light the Beam!