Staff writer Sam Amick is part of The Bee's Kings coverage team, which blogs extensively. Here are two recent excerpts. To read them in their entirety, go to www.sacbee.com/kingsblog.
HOUSTON – When Spencer Hawes finished practice in Sacramento on Thursday, the Kings' second-year center thought he was in trouble.
"We got done, and they were like, 'Hey, (Kings basketball president) Geoff (Petrie) needs to see you,' " Hawes said. "I was like, 'Oh, (shoot), what'd I do?' It kind of caught me off guard."
The meeting was nothing to be afraid of, however, as Petrie informed Hawes of his decision to pick up his team option for the 2009-10 season worth $2.3 million. While it was far from a surprise, Hawes said the notion of having another guaranteed season added to his NBA career was reason to appreciate his plight.
"You always hear the horror stories about guys, even lottery picks, coming in and not having (the option) picked up," he said. "It's always good to see it in writing."
The same can't be said for third-year guard Quincy Douby or third-year forward Shelden Williams. Both have options for the 2009-10 season that have yet to be picked up with the Oct. 31 deadline looming, with Williams' worth $4.3 million and Douby's worth $2.2 million.
• Thursday was spent talking to Kings players about the difference between having Ron Artest and not having him, so I hardly needed a reminder that he wasn't playing in Sacramento anymore.
But en route to the flight to Houston for the Ron-Ron reunion Friday night at Toyota Center, I noticed the sale rack at the sports shop in the airport where only the most prominent former Kings have their numbers retired in a very different way: No. 93, $14.99 (regular price, $59.99, I believe), in all its shiny gold-and-purple glory. It's official now, especially because he changed to No. 96 with the Rockets.
This is the outlet where visitors can see which King was last put out to pasture, although I wonder if it should attempt to stay a bit more up to date. The Mike Bibby jerseys didn't come off the racks all that long ago, and Kevin Martin fans could search high and low for his No. 23 and come up empty. I asked an employee once why they wouldn't have any Martin duds, considering the store is so Kings-heavy and Martin had become the front-and-center star.
"I think they order a year in advance, so I guess he wasn't that good then," the young man said.
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