A Look At What Life Was Like The Last Time The Sacramento Kings Won 40 Games In A Season
Barry Gossage. Getty Images.Yup, that's right. It happened again. The Kings won again last night, this time by dropping 128 points on the road against the Suns
This now marks 3 in a row which is tied for the longest active streak in the West (LAL/LAC), and the Kings are now 8-2 over their last 10 (8-1 since the break) which is the best mark of any team in the West and ties MIL for the best stretch of any team in the NBA over this span.
Basically, this is all a long way of saying the Sacramento Kings are playing as well as any team in the entire NBA right now, they currently sit at 40-26 and own the #2 seed in the West. For a team that's had one of the hardest remaining schedules to end the year, while some may have thought this was the time that the Kings would start to slide, I mean….
not to mention they have MIL coming to town tomorrow.
So, when was the last time we've ever seen anything like this from the Kings? If you can believe it, I imagine there are people who have clicked on this blog that weren't even alive yet.
Advertisement
Ah, 2005-06. What a time to be alive. For me, I was a freshman at ASU. That makes me feel insanely old at the moment, but I imagine I'm not alone there. Think of how much has changed in the world since 2005-06, it's almost as if we lived on a completely different planet. Twitter would be founded in March 2006. There was no Instagram. People actually used Facebook, but I'm pretty sure back then you still may have needed a .@edu email. The iPhone was still a few years from being created. It's hard to imagine that life actually being real, but it was.
So I figured what better time to honor and celebrate the Kings snagging their 40th win than traveling back in time and revisiting what life was like back in the early 2000s. Everyone loves nostalgia, so you mix that in with the feel good story of the 2023 Kings, and now you've got something.
Let's start with the NBA.
In the 2005-06 season, the 7 Second Or Less Suns led the NBA in scoring at 108.4 a game. To put this in perspective, the 2023 Miami Heat average 108.6 points a night, and they rank 30th in the NBA. Remember how much people hated on that style of play? This was also the year Steve Nash won his 2nd MVP
Maybe you thought it should have been Kobe, whatever. I'm not going the MVP debate again.
Sadly, that Suns team lost in 6 in the WCF to the Mavs, who saw the NBA do their thing in the 2006 Finals. I'm not saying they gift wrapped the Miami Heat that 2006 title, I'm just saying Dwyane Wade took 97 FTA (MIA took 207) including 25 FTA in the Heat's 1 point win at home in Game 5. Then in Game 6, Wade took 21 FTA in a 3 point Heat win. I'd say it's pretty obvious what was happening.
That year Kobe led the league in scoring (35.4), Chris Paul won ROY, and the 63-19 Spurs and 64-18 Pistons were the best teams in the league (Mavs were also 60-22). At this time the power was definitely in the West, and the Kings finished the year 44-38. As we know, this was the last time they made the playoffs.
In terms of pop culture, the second Pirates of the Caribbean owned the box office and was the highest grossing movie in 2006, followed by Cars, X-Men, The Da Vinci Code, and Superman. We also were blessed with this all time classic
Advertisement
In the music scene, Kanye pretty much ran things. Late Registration came out in 2006 which was his second album and it went 5x platinum. Back then we were dealing with a very different Kanye compared to 2023. Mariah Carey was still putting out bangers back then, and this was at a time when everyone was still dealing with early generation iPods. This thing
I remember what a huge deal it was when I got this thing for Hannukkah. Kids nowadays will never understand.
In the NFL, we were coming off the Pats back to back Super Bowls, but that year was that also shady Steelers/Seahawks Super Bowl. What was it with shady championships in 2005-06? LT won the MVP that year with the Chargers, Sean Payton was the COY for the Saints, Vince Young was the Offensive Rookie of the Year, and Jason Taylor was the DPOY.
In the MLB, the Cardinal won the World Series, Ryan Howard/Justin Morneau won MVPs, Brandon Webb and Johan Santana won Cy Youngs, and Hanley Ramirez/Justin Verlander were ROYs.
Looking back, think of all the types of names we're talking about here with all these sports. These are HOFers and some of the best to ever do it.
Basically, everything about life was different the last time the Kings were this good. From sports to technology to pop culture, 2005-06 may as well have been 1905-06 when you compare it to 2023.
That's why the Kings and their fans should be soaking all of this up right now. Go nuts. Not only are you the best story in the NBA right now, your team is legitimately good. They have a historic offense and a belief that they belong, which is a dangerous combination. There will be a team that doesn't take them seriously in the postseason and could absolutely be sent home. This Kings team has proven they're for real, and considering we haven't seen shit like this in 17 years I think it's fair to say we are LONG overdue for it.
So, now I'm curious. What were you doing in 2005-06? Actually you know what, I'm not sure I want to know. I feel old enough as is after writing this blog.