- Programming note: Watch "Kings Central" with Alvin Gentry on Tuesday, Feb. 8 at 6 p.m. on NBC Sports California.
It’s hard to imagine sports without fans.
The love, the emotions, the endless support fans bring into arenas, fields and ballparks day in and day out is a loyalty like no other.
With our All Access Daily newsletter, stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams!
SIGN UP HERE And there might not be any fanbase more loyal to a team than fans are to the Sacramento Kings.
Kings’ interim head coach Alvin Gentry certainly agrees.
Gentry sat down with Kyle Draper on the latest episode of "Kings Central" to discuss what the organization needs to get out of its 15-year playoff drought.
“I’ve been in the league for a long time,” Gentry told Draper. “When I look at the Sacramento situation, I look at the fanbase and how loyal they’ve been here. And how tough it used to be to come into Arco [Arena] at the time and play. All the way back to the warehouse where all the bleachers in there are shaking and rolling.”
NBA
The last time the Kings made the playoffs was during the 2005-06 season, and they were eliminated after the first round.
Since coming to Sacramento, the team has never won a title or made an NBA Finals appearance.
And Gentry hopes to change that.
“I think if anybody is deserving of a franchise to have a good team, it’s the fans here,” Gentry said. “So I want to do it, and I want to try to get us to where we need to be.
RELATED: NBA Twitter reacts to blockbuster Kings-Pacers Haliburton trade
“Number two, I would like to see a group of guys that rally together against all odds and find a way to get there. I think that’s a great achievement and I would like to be involved with it so that I would like to be a part of something that ends this drought. We get great fan support right now, we get great fan support. But I think if we get over this hump and you see this, you’re gonna see fans, they’re the best fans in the league, they really are.”
The full interview with Gentry airs Tuesday at 6 p.m. on NBC Sports California.