Pangilinan’s dream team adrift in a nightmare

SACRAMENTO, California—A roadside memorial near the Truxel Road entrance to Power Balance Pavilion, home of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings, is a mute reminder of the violent death of Zachary Ragan.
In October last year, the police flagged down the 42-year-old Ragan as he drove on Truxel Road. He matched the description of someone wanted for a stabbing incident in the foothills city of Oroville, north of Sacramento, and the assault on a 17-year-old boy in town. Ragan was shot to death by officers after he charged at them with a sharp object.
A cross encircled with flowers, oftentimes wilted, sometimes fresh on the spot where Ragan fell, greets fans driving to the stadium during Kings home games. It is somewhat emblematic of the sorry state of affairs swirling around the Kings at this moment.
* * *
The team, once eyed for ownership by Filipino tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan, has been rocked by conflict.
Paul Westphal, its coach of two-plus years, was fired last week—the first NBA coach let go this season. The last coach fired so soon after the start of the season was Jack Ramsay (0-7) in 1988-89 with the Indiana Pacers.
The league’s first coach firing came two weeks into the 66-game season shortened by a long players’ lockout. After the euphoria died down over the Kings’ first home win against the Los Angeles Lakers, faithful fans, including Pinoys in the Fairfield-Vacaville-Sacramento metropolitan area, are wondering if their darlings are back to a losing mode.
MVP’s dream team, at 3-6, is once more near the cellar in the tough Western Conference.
* * *
Westphal was on the endangered NBA coaches list last year. On the same roll: Filipino American mentor Erik Spoelstra, whose heavily favored Miami Heat lost the last NBA finals to the Dallas Mavericks.
With a terrific start this season, Spoelstra’s team, on top or near the top of the Atlantic Conference, is again tipped to be among the last squads standing after the regular season.
With a 51-120 record in Sacramento, Westphal hastened his own demise as an NBA coach after a very public squabble heard around the world with center DeMarcus Cousins. Also, Kings regulars, particularly former Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans, had become frustrated about Westphal’s constant change in defensive philosophy.
Westphal was a players’ coach, having been an NBA alumnus himself. He was a first-round draft choice of the Boston Celtics in 1972, played guard for 12 seasons, averaged 15.6 points and 4.4 assists and had a 50 percent shooting average. He played for the Celtics, Phoenix Suns, the now defunct Seattle Supersonics, New York Knicks and back with the Suns in 1983-84 before retiring.
* * *
Construction crews moved faster and finally completed the paving of a short stretch of road leading to our seaside Barangay Tamurong I in my adopted Candon City, Ilocos Sur, reported my house sitter Rodolfo Pascua. I mentioned the turtle-paced project in a previous column and wondered aloud if a seawall would be erected next to slow the fury of the South China Sea during typhoons. By coincidence or not, work has started on the seawall’s first 100 meters in Tamurong I, with plans of extending it longer, depending on the availability of funds. Kudos goes to 2nd District Rep. Eric Owen Singson, his brother, Mayor Allen Singson, and barangay officials led by Melba and Rodrigo Valdez.