‘I feel proud.’ A legendary fan of the Sacramento Kings sums up the joy of now | Opinion 

How do I feel now that the Sacramento Kings have finally broken free of their NBA record of 16 straight losing seasons and 16 consecutive seasons of missing the NBA playoffs? Relieved.

At least for now, our Sacramento Kings aren’t a punchline. They’re the Beam Team. They’re a national sensation. Much like the ’98-99 season when J-Will (Jason Williams) and Chris Webber and Vlade Divac all hit the capital city at once, the Kings are a revelation with a capital R.

To be honest, like many, I don’t really know how to feel.

My dad took me to my first home game when I was 8, in the Kings’ inaugural 1985-86 season in Sacramento. This week, he will celebrate his 80th birthday. His grandchildren are now 15 and 14, and for the very first time they’ll be watching Kings playoff basketball.

“Maybe the real playoffs are the friends we made along the way,” I would joke during years of futility, and boy did we make friends.

There was no Facebook or Twitter when the Kings last made the playoffs in 2006, and the advent of social media allowed Kings fans to have the digital campfire that folks would gather around because we all know misery loves company. We would rail about the team, the owner, the players and eventually, we would turn on each other. We all wanted the same thing; we just had different ideas about how to get there. So, eventually it just became an exercise in stress management, if an unhealthy one.

Though the Kings’ win-loss record was terrible through the years, being a Kings fan was always something of a badge of honor to me. Wearing Kings gear was an instant signal to others that you were loyal, committed to the cause, and yes, your cheese was probably not entirely on its cracker.

My children were indoctrinated into being Kings fans. I’ve often wondered if I was dooming them to a life of failure and pain. Were the children of Warriors fans or Lakers fans getting a better quality of life? I always defaulted to my dad’s default: “It builds character, son.”

My children have a ton of character at this point, and Sacramento is the embodiment of character. To go through everything we’ve gone through inspired questions we were asked season after losing season.

Why did we stick around? Why did we put up with it and keep coming back? There was always next year, but that year was always a loser.

But to scratch and slog your way each year, covered in (figurative) scars and bruises as our price for being Kings fans? It makes this season infinitely sweeter.

I’ll bet my feelings are similar to every Kings fan who’s been on this road from day one. I’ve heard from many of them on my radio show over all those consecutive losing seasons as we tried to make sense of it all together.

We all pitched in — an entire community did — to keep the Kings from relocating to Seattle or Anaheim. We packed Sacramento City Council meetings to raise our voices for the idea of keeping the Kings in Sacramento. We did the same at the NBA Board of Governors meetings, once in a 32-foot van. We parked that van in downtown Manhattan, wore our purple and showed the country that we loved the Kings and didn’t want to lose them.

There were times we had no reason to hope, but we did. We never stopped hoping, and now today?

I feel proud.

I feel vindicated.

I feel a sense of community.

I feel like I backed the right horse.

I feel so happy for everyone who believed in the Kings all this time.

I feel so good for my children, and all of the kids who blindly followed Mom and Dad’s lead for no other reason than that’s what little kids do.

I feel a lump in my throat for all the die-hard Kings fans who aren’t with us anymore. They would be so elated at everything the Beam Team is all about.

I feel nervous for all the unknowns to come.

Teamwork makes the beam work. And no city understands teamwork better than the City of Beams: Sacramento.

I am a native son, and I’ve never been more proud to say those words.

Here’s to a bright and beamy future.