Keith Smart and Marcus Thornton have been in a battle the past few days – for tickets.
The Kings head coach and shooting guard are natives of Baton Rouge, La., near where the Kings play the New Orleans Hornets tonight.
So, naturally, both said they are trying to secure as many seats as they can in New Orleans Arena.
Not that it sounds as if their respective family members would mind sitting together.
"My mom and his family all go to the same church," Thornton said. "His brother plays the drums there. So we're all connected in some kind of way."
Thornton and Smart's brother attended the same high school, Tara in Baton Rouge, said Smart, 47.
Smart said he remembers "hearing about (Thornton), this kid who's playing basketball, going to LSU and things like that."
Neither could recall when they first met.
"I've been knowing him personally for two, three years," said Thornton, 24. "But I knew of him already."
Smart, lightly recruited out of McKinley High in Baton Rouge after a wrist injury cut his prep career short, said he followed a friend to Garden City Community College in Kansas and made the basketball team there in a walk-on tryout.
He later transferred to Indiana, where he hit the game-winning shot in the 1987 NCAA Championship Game, which was played in New Orleans.
Thornton was born about two months later.
After spending two years at Kilgore Community College in Texas out of high school, he returned home to play at LSU and was drafted in 2009 by the Miami Heat, which traded his draft rights to the Hornets.
Thornton averaged 14.5 points in his rookie season in New Orleans.
He became a fan favorite, but his minutes decreased in his second season, and he was traded to the Kings before last February's trade deadline.
When Thornton, a restricted free agent after last season, re-signed with the Kings following the NBA lockout, his mother was with him in Sacramento and sought out Smart.
"She came up and gave me a hug," said Smart, who had joined the Kings as an assistant coach. "She said, 'Oh, I'm so happy you're here with Marcus!' "
"It made her at ease to have somebody she knows and trusts," Thornton said.
Thornton sees it as a positive as well.
"Having somebody from your same hometown, same background, same area, is always good," he said. "They know how it was when you grew up.
"Everything's the same."
Averaging a team-high 17.4 points this season, Thornton has been prone to fits of scoring, as illustrated by his 18-point third quarter in the Kings' win over the Warriors on Saturday night.
It was his second game back after missing four games because of a hematoma in his left thigh, an injury for which he is still receiving regular treatment. He said afterward the thigh is "not back to normal yet," but is "getting there."
Tonight will be Thornton's first game playing in New Orleans since he signed the four-year deal with the Kings, worth approximately $33 million.
Before he signed, there were reports during the offseason the Hornets might be interested in going after Thornton again.
Thornton said he "heard rumors of it, but I didn't pay attention to it. It's free agency, so whatever happens, happens."
"It's always good to be back at home," Thornton said.
"But I knew we (were) building something great with the Kings, so I was really leaning towards coming back here. And I'm glad it happened that way."
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