Hey, sports fans, I’m back from my absence due to the death of my father, Tim Jordan. Who knows if I’m really ready to be back; anyone who has lost someone can probably understand how hard it is to enjoy anything after you lose someone so close to you. My dad thought it was so cool that I wrote a sports column, and he, a man who never watched sports, somehow knew when important sporting events were happening and would ask me who I thought was going to win or whether I was watching the game. He was also coming and watching football and basketball games with me every week; now remember, this man did not watch sports. He just loved me and loved spending time with me. He was always good at trying to relate to people with whatever they were passionate about.

Would you look at that, I managed to turn my sports column into another obituary for my dad. I guess basketball hasn’t been quite the same since he died; to be honest, sometimes I feel like I will never enjoy anything as much as I used to. Everyone has assured me that it gets easier with time, and I know that it will, but right now, it is hard. It doesn’t help that the Sacramento Kings have been seriously disappointing me lately.

Let’s look at where things stand since my last column a month ago. The Kings have won five out of 11 games since February 7th, with only a few good games in there. They beat the reigning champs, the Denver Nuggets, on February 14th, then got completely destroyed by them two weeks later. They beat the Los Angeles Clippers and the Minnesota Timberwolves in two pretty exciting games but then blew leads against the Phoenix Suns and the Miami Heat, and in their most recent game on Monday, March 4th, they blew a 20-point lead against the Chicago Bulls. They have put me right back on that emotional roller coaster that is being a Kings fan. Currently, the Kings sit in 7th place in the Western Conference, which puts them in the Play-in Tournament. Remember, the 7th through 10th place teams have to earn their way into the playoffs.

The Western Conference is pretty close. The Kings are two games back from the Phoenix Suns, who currently have that last playoff spot, and they have the same number of wins as the 8th-place Dallas Mavericks and the 9th-place Los Angeles Lakers, who they will have played again by the time you are reading this, and they really can’t afford to lose. After playing the Lakers in Los Angeles on Wednesday, March 6th, they will start a six-game home stand. This week, they play the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday, March 7th, the Houston Rockets on Sunday, March 10th, the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday, March 12th, and the Los Angeles Lakers again on Wednesday, March 13th. I think a Sacramento Kings winning streak is what I need to give me at least a small amount of joy during this tough time, come on Kings!