Kings v. Grizzlies 1.29.14

Before the game tonight Cap City Kingdom members got a chance to attend a Super Fan Fest event. This event took place in the West Lounge inside the arena. As season ticket holders came into the room they were treated to some sweet images of the new arena that the Kings are planning to build for the start of the 2016-17 season. The response from fans has been absolutely positive, and everybody I have talked to is looking forward to getting construction started on this gem. It'll be the crown of our downtown.

See? This is a shot I took of the room BEFORE everyone had filed in. The place was packed! Cap City Kingdom members had the opportunity to partake in free nachos and beverages. Yes, you heard that right... FREE NACHOS. And these weren't the sloppy nachos you'd find at a fast food place. The Kings organization went all out... well as all out as you can for nachos! I had a plate-full of them, I think I could have eaten two. But I was busying myself with shooting photos.

I really like this shot I got of Carmichael Dave and Scott Fresh. No, it wasn't really this dark at the event, but I had my camera set so that it wouldn't let too much light in the sensor. It sort of looks like some shady dealin's are going down between the two of them. Hahaha, I assure you probably not though! These two guys are two of my favorite people associated with the Kings. Carmichael Dave is great to listen to on the radio in the mornings, and of course, you know Scott Fresh brings the entertainment to each and every Kings game.

Here are some of the Kings' super-fans. This select group of people have been featured on the King's website. Each one has been shown to be a real super-fan of the Kings. It was awesome to hear each of them speak about their experience as a fan of the Sacramento Kings. These people have been Kings fans for many years. This Q&A session has totally inspired me to be a super-fan of the Kings, that's for sure!

After the fan-event I went down to my usual seat. Tonight I was alone! None of my fellow season ticket holders could make it, a cry to Instagram didn't work, putting up on ticket on the NBA ticket exchange didn't work... it seemed that this seat was destined not to get filled tonight. I've gone stag to a few Kings games before, but c'mon! It was a bit sad to have a ticket wasted.

Here's a shot of the time right after the players are introduced. A couple things of note here. One, check out Rudy Gay! He came back from his injury... so that was awesome to see! Two, Scott Moak wasn't able to be at this game due to illness. The Kings enlisted Jaime Coffee to fill in for him. Jamie is apparently the first female public address announcer in NBA history! Wow! At first it was a bit weird to not hear Scott's voice in the arena, but after a while I did end up enjoying Jamie's work that night.

I was out and about shooting some photos around the arena when these fine ladies came strolling by. In a surprising turn of events, they asked to take a photo with me! I assure you, this rarely happens, haha! It was an honor to take this photo with the SKD though, they are great girls!

After the SKD group photo I saw Fresh, Slamson, and a few of the other SKD dancers doing a spot or the Professional Bull Riding show coming up at the arena. The Kings have been giving away tickets to the event during games, and this was just before they did that for this game. I love Slamson's get-up. How does he get all this cool stuff to wear? Only he knows.

I guess a lot of crazy stuff happened on the concourse because while I was out there I was upgraded to this floor level seat. Yes, you heard me... FLOOR LEVEL. I was almost right behind the Kings bench. I couldn't believe it! This was the first time I have been that close to the bench. I have been upgraded before to some really awesome seats, but usually they were on the other side of the arena. To be on his side was eye-opening. I could hear what Coach Malone and the players were saying to each other. Incredible.

This was pretty much my view from the seat upgrade. I was right up in the action. The first couple of rows are right on the floor with no elevation, so many of the photos I got at the game had some heads in the way. It wasn't too bad, but I had to definitely adjust in ways I hadn't done before. Hey, I wouldn't mind having that teeny bit of photography challenge if I could sit here all the time!

Wow, looks like Charlie has a bunch of t-shirts to give away right now. Each and every game there are t-shirts, balls, and other items given away to fans in attendance. It's a great little extra that the Kings provide to fans. It makes the game experience just that much more exciting and memorable for those who are lucky enough to get something!

I'm not sure what Isaiah is thinking here, but he doesn't look too happy with Ben McLemore in this shot! I'm sure there isn't any bad blood between the two of them. Ben does have a lot of improvement still to make in his game though. He's definitely had his ups and downs this season already. Everybody wants to see him succeed - I'm sure none so more than himself.

Big Cuz was looking pretty dapper off on the sidelines in his street clothes. Hmm, I wish my street clothes looked so nice! He was joining in with his teammates on the bench at times and encouraging them. The Kings have been struggling without him in the line-up. He's got to be in the line-up for them to succeed.

During the fourth quarter Scott Fresh gets the crowd pumped to encourage on the Kings. If you look in the background you can see Vivek cheering on his team as well! It's so awesome to have an owner that is really into his team. 

Slamson high fives fans who have the court side seats while Jimmer gets ready to enter the game. Jimmer has been getting quite a bit more playing time as of late. I've enjoyed seeing him get into games this season. He's definitely provided a nice spark at various points during games.

This is what eighty-nine Kings tickets looks like! I was able to put together a large group from my church to go to the Kings Faith & Family night in March. I'm super pumped to see all these people come to the game!

Kings v. Nuggets1.26.14

Tonight I stepped into the arena and saw Scott Fresh outside our section about to do a little feature for the pre-game show. My wife actually saw him at the Costco gas station in Woodland yesterday! He was on his way to a wedding. It was nice of Scott to say hi to her when he saw her. Scott always does an awesome job hosting the Kings games. I don't think they'd be the same without him.

I went to this game with my friend Dave. He'll be at the next one too. We sit in section 122 underneath this Jason Thompson banner. At first I thought these banners were just big posters to promote the players, but I found out from Katie Peterson that these banners represent sections that Kings players have donated season tickets to people in. Wow. Suddenly these banners have much more significance.

Looking around the arena you can see player banners all around. How impressive is it that all these players have chosen to donate tickets. I know I'm certainly impressed by the gesture. I'm sure that the Kings Community aspect of the Kings Organization had a lot to do with this effort. Gotta give props to them for that!

Check it out! There was an actual king at the game today! You can tell how royal he is by the amazing golden crown he is sporting. Hah, this guy has the guts to dress this way to a game. That's really cool. I love seeing fans who go all out to support the team by way of their dress. When I attend San Jose Sharks games, the arena is filled with teal jerseys. There aren't as many jersey-clad fans at Sleep Train Arena, but San Jose is a much more affluent area, so I understand how that is. But I do see a lot of purple pride every game night. I'm going to have to pay more attention to the creativity of our fans.

I noticed this pile of stuff left on the floor by the Denver Nuggets during warm-ups. Way to make a mess Denver! I can assure you that our side of the court was nice and clean and free of any clutter. I also want to mention that Carl Landry is in this picture too! He has just recently come back from a long injury. I don't think he's 100% game-ready yet as he has shown some rust, but I'm hopefully he'll get his NBA-legs back ASAP!

It's tip-off time! For the second game in a row Aaron Gray is starting at center. DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay are still out for the Kings. The good news is that before the game I saw the big Cuz on the court shooting around working on his shot. He wasn't limping or wearing any sort of brace. I hope he returns soon! The Kings played Indiana really well last game - let's bring that same intensity here!

Today's food of choice for me was a slice of pizza. Sleep Train serves pizza from Pizza Guys. I do really like the pizza there, but I have to admit that it is a bit pricey for just a slice of pizza. Dave was more adventurous than I. He got the chili cheese fries with onions. This big heap of fries was about the same price of my pizza slice, but looked a lot more filling.

Marcus Thornton had a huge game on Friday. While he didn't score the monster amount of points he did that day, he looked better than the player that he has been this season. Without Cuz and Rudy in the line-up, players like Thornton need to take on bigger roles. Maybe this is the opportunity to get going? He needs to take it!

The Kings held the game close for just about the entire time. There was a bit of a back and forth in terms of score. The fans did their part to cheer on the team and will them to a victory. These kids were in front of my a couple of rows down. They were decked out in Kings gear and cheering loud for the home team. It was great to see.

Isaiah Thomas and Ben McLemore had strong games tonight, but ultimately the Kings fell a bit short against the Nuggets. With two of their big guns out, I'm OK with this loss. The Kings were not embarrassed on the court and they had a legitimate chance at winning this game. The Kings go on the road for just one game before returning to Sleep Train for a game against Memphis this Wednesday. I'll be there!

Kings v. Pacers 1.24.14

It feels like a long time since the last King's home game, and it really has been. The Kings' schedule this year has been a bit unbalanced. They had many home games scheduled in the first half of the season, which was great, but now will have many more games on the road. Taking a glance at the remaining games, there are quite a few stretches where there will be some significant periods of time between home games. For this game, I did not sit in my usual season ticket holder spot. A couple of my friends had stake in them, so I went ahead and purchased my own separate ticket. It was a little pricey, but the view was much better!

The seat I got was still in section 122, but rather than being near the top of that section, I was near the bottom in row D. Wow, what a difference sitting in the other part of the alphabet makes! My seat happened to be right across from one of the television cameramen. Since I've been getting a lot o more into photography, looking at his camera was fascinating. I started to wonder how much one of those professional television cameras cost. It's got to be a crazy insane amount of money.

I had a lot of errands to do before the game so I didn't eat beforehand. Since I bought my own ticket, I chose not to bring my Cap City Kingdom season passes for fear that I would lose them. Well, I forgot that even though I bought a separate ticket, I could have stilled used the season tickets to scan for points. See, whenever a season ticket holder purchases anything at a Kings game they can scan a special part of the season ticket pass for points. These points can be redeemed for anything ranging from Kings merchandise, to extra game tickets, to special Kings experiences. It's actually a really cool program that I think a lot of season ticket holders like myself enjoy and take advantage of.

I ended up getting fries and a Pepsi. I'm not sure what's better between the fries, the pizza, and the pretzel. They're all pretty good game time snacks. I think these fries bring back a sense of nostalgia for me as when I was a kid, a local fast food place that I loved served their large sized fries in a cup just like this one. In case you're wondering, that place was called Burger Country and it was located near my house back in Portland, Oregon. Anybody ever been there? We would have a serious connection if any of my readers have ever been there. I mean SERIOUS.

I spied Kings general manager Pete D'Allessandro before the game again chatting it up. He's probably talking about some pretty important stuff here... or not! I don't know. I always try to keep an eye out for the Kings brass whenever I can. Obviously as general manager, he would have be be at the games all the time to see how the team is doing. I didn't see Vivek at this game, but Chris Mullin made another appearance tonight at sitting at center court. Man, I'd love to meet Chris Mullin! I went to high school in San Francisco during the time he played for the Warriors. He was definitely one of my favorite players back then.

Sitting closer up means better shots of the anthem. Being closer up means I can actually see the players a bit more as they stand during the Star-Spangled Banner. Tonight's anthem was performed by a local marching band. I did end up getting some photos of them, but in this case I think being a bit higher up in the arena would have been better as it was difficult to get a good group shot of them. Also, being lower means more people in the way of good photographic shots. There are a lot of people on the court at this time.

Tonight it was the Kings v. the Pacers. The Pacers are the best team in the league, and the Kings were without DeMarcus Cousins and Rudy Gay due to injury. It was not looking like a very good game for our team. To be honest, I was thinking this game was going to be a total blowout. The Kings had to start Aaron Gray at center tonight. Don't get me wrong, I really like Aaron Gray, but he is not the ideal person you want as your starting center. It must have been exciting for him though!

I typically don't get shots of the refs during the game, but I liked this one. Just check out the SKD doing their thing in the background, and the refs don't even pay it any mind! I guess that's their job! No distractions, right? Hah, I'm not sure I'd have their resolve. But anyways, the refs tonight made some questionable calls in my opinion. There was an especially big call with seconds left in regulation that could have been one that cost us this game.

Google Glass. This game night was all about it. I saw many of the Kings employees wearing the Google Glass sets, and this new technology was featured in many aspects of the game. At times, fans were treated to a Google Glass view on the large jumbotron. It's pretty awesome that Vivek and the Kings are embracing so many new technological aspects. We are definitely a team on the cutting edge! I'm proud of that as a Kings fan. My own personal idea for Google is to make a Google Helmet. Then we can all look like Boba Fett or the Clone Troopers from Star Wars. Wouldn't that be cool? Google Helmet everybody! You heard it here first!

I really wanted to end with a photo of Marcus Thornton. His contribution in the games previous to this one was almost zilch. Well, he really broke out tonight by scoring over 40 points. He was incredible (along with Isaiah Thomas too). He was getting a lot of cheers from fans tonight. It was amazing to see what he did. Tonight the Kings lost to the Pacers, but they fought very hard. In truth, I think the Kings should have had this game... but I won't sweat over it. It was a great and gutsy performance that showed the team can play with anyone. Next up will be Sunday against the Nuggets. See you then!

Kings v. Cavs 1.12.14

Today's game was an early 3:00 start. I actually didn't sit in my usual season ticket holder's seat for this one. One of my fellow season ticket holders is from Cleveland so I gave up both my tickets to him. Not wanting to miss the game, my friend Vince (shown above, and who is also from Cleveland) got tickets on Groupon to attend this game. I sat in section 105, row V, seat 19.

The next few groups of pictures feature shots that I wouldn't usually be able to see from my vantage point in section 122. First up... section 122! I usually sit under the words 'block party' from this Jason Thompson sign. I looked like my section didn't fill up too much for this game!

I've always wanted to get a shot of the retired jerseys, but my angle from 122 is terrible. From 105 I was able to get a perfect view of them. These are the more modern retired jerseys. To the left of these are older school ones, some that date back to the old Kansas City days. The last jersey retired is no. 6, which stands for 'sixth man', the fans. The Kings wanted to honor and acknowledge the fans by doing this a while back.

It's the goon squad! Sign Lady is right there in the thick of this loyal section of fans. The goon squad is always up and jumping before each and every tip-off. They are positioned right in front of the Kings' bench area so they are really right in the thick of things.

There were two banners that fans got to sign when they found out the Kings were staying in Sacramento. And this is the side that I usually don't get to see. I can't remember which side I signed on. Hopefully one day the banners will be hung on a wall or someplace lower so I can actually see where I signed it!

This is a photo of Grant and Jerry. They do the commentary for the Kings' TV games. Grant also does a popular afternoon sports talk show on the radio in Sacramento. I listen to it whenever I can, it's funny when Grant goes on on some callers. Jerry was a former coach of the Sacramento Kings, and people love his humor and down-to-earthness.

Yay! Those red NBA Fit shirts are gone! I was glad to see the teams come out in their team colors. Here's DeMarcus Cousins chatting it up with one of the Cavs players. Little did they know at this moment that the game would be a complete blowout favoring the Kings!

Halftime featured a fan contest basketball obstacle course. Though the teams didn't wear their fitness shirts, this activity was still connected to that. The SKD helped out by holding up signs and these hula hoops which the contestants had to dribble a basketball through.

The game was so in hand by the fourth quarter that a lot of the bench reserves got a lot of good minutes. It was awesome to see Ray MacCallum get some playing time. He got his first three pointer of his NBA career by hitting a 24-second clock buzzer beater. The Kings won this game by 44 points (124-80)

As the game wound down someone brought out the giant DeMarcus head into the crowd. Like I've said in the past, I'm pretty sure he won't get voted in by the fans of the NBA across the country, but I think DeMarcus has shown all-star ability this season and deserves to be on the team. I wish more people in the country could see what a stellar basketball player he is and has grown to be this season!

My Groupon for this game allowed me to shoot a free-throw on the court after the game. Fans only got one shot at it, but it was still a fun experience. It looks like my shot is straight on and good here, but to be honest... I aired it! Argghh! Better luck next time! The Kings will be out on the road for quite a while. They will not return to Sleep Train until the end of the month. I will definitely miss going to games until then!

Kings v. Magic 1.10.14

The night started with the singing of the national anthem, as usual. Tonight a choir sang it. It was a ton of people on that basketball court! This is just the singers, not seen behind them are boy scouts who carried and held the giant flag up.

I love the introduction of the Sacramento Kings. The music, the dancing, and Scott Moak's voice all make it my favorite part of the game. I hate missing it, so that's why I always try to arrive early to the arena. There are a lot of people who don't share that sentiment though... I see lots who enter pretty late! No judging though!

The Orlando Magic don't have a huge superstar player to watch, but they do have Victor Oladipo. Oladipo is a rookie this year who has been doing a great job for his team. We have Ben McLemore. Ben started off the year pretty well but has since cooled dramatically. He needs to start making some shots to get his confidence back up. Right now he's in a bit of a funk.

Jimmer Fredette has been given some minutes to play behind Isaiah Thomas. And he's been making good use of them! He came into the game and provided a spark in scoring. He was aggressive shooting the ball and driving the lane as well. I loved seeing him fake out some of the Magic defenders near the rim. His teammates definitely appreciated the effort - especially from Rudy Gay - as you can see the embrace he got in the picture above.

Wow, it's former Golden State Warrior, '92 Dream Teamer, and Hall of Fame basketball player Chris Mullin! Mullin works for the Kings now and can be seen at some of the games. I'd love to be able to meet him and get a picture with him. Hopefully one day this will happen. Until then, I'll have to settle for this relatively far shot of him from my seat at the top of 122.

Looks like the camera is squarely focused on SKD. I noticed that there were fewer dancers tonight. Though there weren't as many, those who were there were up to the task of providing the spark that they bring. 

Also dancing were the King's Hip Hop style dance team. I saw them a few times last year, but this year they haven't made too many appearances. These guys have some impressive moves! The next game will be on Sunday versus Cleveland. It'll be an exciting game as I will be sitting in a different section! I wonder what kind of shots I'll get from there! You'll find out in my next post! See you Sunday!