General

Sactown Losing Its Collective Mind Over Greene

Aug 1, 2008, 5:30 PM UTC

We are all but pawns in the hands of Kings’ President Geoff Petrie. While the rest of the world is busy inventing soap operas in Houston, or comparing the Rockets to last season’s Celtics, the Kings faithful have their eyes on the real prize: Donte Greene, who this time last year was about to enroll in Syracuse as a freshman. With his range, length, and Baltimore pedigree, the lanky 20 year-old is set to change the course of this franchise forever. I spoke with Kings expert Tom Ziller for further details of this historic merger.â†µ
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â†µBethlehem Shoals: What’s the mood on the Sactown streets concerning the arrival of Donte Greene?â†µ
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â†µTom Ziller: What’s a stronger word for “ebullient”? Fevered? Yeah, fevered. â†µ
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â†µBS:Any plans for a parade?â†µ
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â†µTZ: Not a parade per se, but a rally near the beer tent at the California State Fair later this month is in the works. And Donte has been named grand marshal, ahem excuse me, Grand Marshal of the Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee.â†µ
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â†µBS: I’ve heard that a local radio station is sponsoring a nickname contest. What’s the early favorite.â†µ
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â†µTZ: The Greene Monster was unfortunately wasted on Orien (who plays professionally in New Zealand these days), so Greene Jesus and The Stinky Greene are in the lead, I’m afraid.â†µ
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BS: If you had to rank Kings jersey sales for next season, where would expect Donte to land?â†µ
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â†µTZ: Quincy Douby (natch), Donte Greene, Kevin Johnson.â†µ
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â†µBS: Technically, there’s an apostrophe after “Donte.” Is the planning board really considering a measure to preserve it?â†µ
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â†µTZ: There’s a ballot initiative from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Vote November 4!â†µ
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â†µBS: So far, what are your three favorite moments in Donte’s career as a King?â†µ
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â†µTZ: The trade, when he went for a second Squeeze with Cheese at lunch the next day, and his performance on the drums doing “Baba O’Reilly” on Rock Band.â†µ
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â†µBS: Was Greene even on Sacramento’s draft board back in June?â†µ
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â†µTZ: Geoff Petrie was actually set to select Greene with the 12th pick in the draft. But at quite the inopportune time, he looked at Chad Ford’s last mock draft and exclaimed “Who the f--- is Jason Thompson?,” finishing the question just as Adam Silver got on the line. Heavily distraught, Petrie spent all of July trying to pry Greene from Houston. The Kings actually wanted to keep Artest this season (just to see what happened, like a Katherine Heigl movie or jalapeno eating contest), but had to let him go to get Donte. The Rockets wouldn’t take Kevin Martin instead. Something about a lack of gulliness.â†µ
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â†µBS: Tom, thanks for joining us. We know how busy things must be there.â†µ