SACRAMENTO, Calif. _ For the first time since he became general manager of the Kings, I was worried about Vlade Divac.
The Kings hit rock bottom last week, blown out by an ordinary Detroit Pistons team in a manner that was nothing short of pathetic. A young team already losing a lot amid injuries and lapses of desire were suddenly lying down as if it didn't care.
Divac saw the same game you did.
"What happened in Detroit was unacceptable," he said in an interview this week.
He agreed to talk to me about what his reaction was to all this, to the feeling that a cloud hovered over the Kings as the team continued to fall short of expectations. I found him to have an open and positive approach to what has been a troubled season.
"This season has been disappointing, frustrating for a lot of reasons," Divac said. "We expected better results."
So, that's why I was worried about him. We all expected better results. Fans, his bosses and colleagues. We expected wins. We expected a team that cares, and it just didn't seem like it did.
If the team doesn't care, why should we? And if we start not caring, shouldn't Divac be held responsible?
And in that case, in the cutthroat business of the NBA, isn't it true that being "held responsible" could morph into being fired if the Detroit debacle became the new normal for the Kings from now until the end of the NBA regular season in mid-April?
And if Divac had to go, then wouldn't Luke Walton, his hand-picked coach, have to go as well? And while we're at it, wouldn't the heads on the chopping block include primary owner, Vivek Ranadive?
This is the brain trust of the Kings, along with Kings COO Matina Kolokotronis. All of these people are interconnected with Ranadive, who took over the Kings in the summer of 2013.
If you've never met the Kings primary owner, I'm here to tell you: That's a big brain. That's a man raised in wealth and privilege in his native India _ a man who has never lost at anything until, well, until now.
But with the 127-106 Detroit loss as a symbol _ and, my friends, we all know the game wasn't that close _ Ranadive seemed destined to be the admiral of a seventh straight Kings losing season.
Last week, this foundation seemed to be creaking.
