The End
It's early September of 2013, approximately 5pm. I am sitting in a small office around a table, looking out the window. I can see the parking lot with a few cars and trees. I remember this vividly because I think it gave me a sense of peace and comfort at the moment. I needed it. I turn to the man opposite me, tears are streaming down my face. He hands me a box of tissues. I try to fight the tears as best I can. I think, “I don’t want them to see me weak or vulnerable” But it was too hard. I don't remember much of what was said, kind of a blur. I think it was mostly the normal formalities when you get fired from a job. This was new to me as I had never been fired before. I had always left or changed jobs on my own volition. This wasn't a normal job though. Not for me. This was my DREAM job. And it came to such an abrupt end. I signed some papers and the man said, “The Sacramento Kings appreciate what you have contributed to the organization.” And that was that. I walked out of Sleep Train Arena, down the steps to the parking lot and turned to look back at the arena. I was numb. I didn't know what to feel. I had poured my blood, sweat and tears into this team for the last three years, a majority of it on my own dime. It hurt, a lot. And It would take some years for wounds to heal between me and my beloved team. But looking back It was well worth it. I will treasure those years forever. Now I want to share those years with you. How I got to live a Sports Fan’s Dream. How I became a part of something much bigger than myself and how incredibly rewarding it was.
The Beginning
Now you know how it ended, I'm gonna go back to when it all started. There once was three basketball enthusiasts, or “The Big 3” as we like to call ourselves. Freshmen year of high school I met one of them, his name is Blake Richardson. We were both on the cross country team. I remember running under the hot sun one evening on some random god forsaken street. Yes we actually chose to do this. Seeing that no one else was around and wanting to take my mind off of the fact that I was running, I ran up next to Blake and we started to chat. We instantly clicked as we were both huge sports fanatics, and we were both not enthusiastic about running in the hot sun after school everyday. I have fond memories of our attempts to get out of doing sprints and cool downs as much as possible. We were doing this to stay in decent shape, not because we actually thought we had a realistic shot at winning at the meets. A year later by chance we both ended up both taking a newspaper class together. For the same reason, we wanted to write about sports. We talked and fantasized about being sportswriters someday, co-anchors on ESPN, radio broadcasters for the NBA finals or our own radio show. However, we ended up being the only two people in the class who cared about sports whatsoever and had very little in common with our peers. Blake wrote an article about the soccer team that made the paper. Props to you Blake! I never finished my article on Coach Grush, deemed a traitor by the media, yet he was one of my favorite teachers and adamantly defended by his football players that I interviewed. A great friendship was born during those two years.
Fast forward to junior year in the quad at lunchtime. I am sitting with my usual group of friends by the cafeteria. I don't remember why, but for whatever reason we decided to move to a different spot. We got up and joined another group that always hung out by the office. Blake was in the group, which I think was one of the reasons we went over there. And this is where I met the third member of “The Big 3,” Tyler Brandt. The memory I have is of people stealing cereal out of Tyler’s backpack and then sticking trash in it without him seeing(Sorry Tyler had to put this) Tyler and I clicked right away because of our mutual love for sports. And so “The Big 3” was born. The name “Big 3” originated from Lebron taking his talents to south beach to join Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. AKA “The Big 3” So whenever we played basketball together the three of us would try and get on the same team so we could assume our basketball personalities. Tyler was tall and lanky and liked to shoot, so he was Bosh. Blake is quick, sneaky and a great defender and cutter with a good shot, so Dwyane Wade. Me, I like to facilitate and get the ball moving around to set people up. Either that or take it to the hole hard or post up, ala Lebron. We were so fanatic about being, “The Big 3” that we found a sketchy company from China to make us three Sacramento Kings white jerseys. On the backs we had printed Bosh, Wade, and James with their Miami numbers. Even today this is probably the favorite jersey I own. I still hold onto the belief that at some point in his career, Lebron, who is nicknamed, "The King" will assume his rightful place on the Sacramento Kings! Not only did we enjoy playing basketball together, but we also created a fantasy basketball league together as well. A league that is currently going into its 6th year running with 14 participants. We eagerly look forward to it every year.
I will finish off this chapter with this story. The origin of “Jer” I have had a number of people ask me to explain this. But basically, if you have been around the three of us regularly you will notice we call each other, “Jer.” We rarely ever use our first names. It’s caught on and a number of our friends now call each other “Jer” as a replacement for their first names. A friend of ours, Taylor Gordon, told me that he actually got his youth group to all start calling each other Jer, and low and behold they ended up having a speaker during their week at Hume Lake coincidentally named, Jer. So it spread even more. Jer originates from the Kings telecast. Grant Napear, the play-by-play announcer calls Jerry Reynolds,the color commentator, “Jer” for short. And Jerry Reynolds if you don't know is pretty much one of the nicest people on the planet, so we absolutely love him. So calling each other “jer” reminds us of Jerry and our Kings basketball roots.
TO BE CONTINUED….
Next chapter will be about my own basketball roots in the bay area, my move to Sacramento, memories of the King's golden years, and the beginning of the Relocation saga and how we got involved in it the Fight to save the Kings!
