New King living Manny V. Pangilinan’s dream

SACRAMENTO, California—Bales of hay topped with pumpkins not only formed a decorative wall this week at the Truxel Road entrance to the Sleep Train Arena, home of the Sacramento Kings.

They also purveyed a Halloween choice for the team. Will it be trick or treat for the struggling NBA franchise during the 2013-2014 season?

The Kings have clutched at straws, financially the last few years. With an under-financed ownership and an arena that’s among the oldest and worst in the league, they have tried to relocate to Las Vegas, Anaheim, San Jose and Seattle.

The pyrotechnics, personalities and people numbering over 17,000 during the team’s 90-88 home win Wednesday night over the Denver Nuggets was more than a kick in the pants. The pageantry suggested that the Kings are here to stay to the delight of fans, including Filipinos in the capital and 10 satellite cities.

“I’m calling this a Retention Party, the unofficial Welcome Home,” NBA Commissioner David Stern, told a local sports columnist at the inaugural festivities and season opener for both teams.  “And I’ll be there when the new arena opens in October 2016, too.”

Stern, retiring in February after serving 30 years as leader of the world’s premier basketball league, presided over the greatest act of recovery in American sports in recent memory.

He, along with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star, helped cobble together investors that came up with the $535 million accepted by the former Kings owners.

The money prevented the team from bolting and resulted in a public-private deal to build a new arena to brighten the downtown skyline by 2016.

Stern has been a familiar figure hereabouts.  He was around to enhance the fortunes of the Kings during their happier days in the capital town.

And the rest was history.

While here on several occasions, he predicted the rise of international players while delivering Lithuanian star Sarunas Marciulionis and his Yugoslav and Serbian counterpart Vlade Divac to the Kings, a move that “was greeted with raised eyebrows and hoots of laughter,” the Sacramento Bee now recalls.

Prior to this week’s season openers, NBA rosters included 106 players from 38 countries.

Stern’s “global instincts,” the Bee said, also produced new Kings principal owner Vivek Ranadive out of the blue. Ranadive, is a native of India, a region that the NBA is targeting aggressively for growth.

Ranadive, a Silicon Valley businessman who leads a multi-billion dollar computer software company, was a teenager from Mumbai who arrived in America years ago with $50 in his pocket.