Sacramento Kings moving franchise to the OC, CA.

What gets me with that clip is the way Barry (and the always clueless Bender) kept prodding well after Russell's had made his anger exceedingly obvious. Man what a prick.

 

This team would literally be the only show in town. During winter months, the only real competition for the sports entertainment dollar in the entire region would be ODU hoops -- and while I may be biased in this assessment, that really shouldn't be much competition at all for an NBA franchise.

As the weather warms up and tourists start flocking to the beach over spring break, they'll have no problem at all filling the place. The area is a hotbed for high school basketball (not as highly regarded as football, but still very good) and many native Virginians from beyond the immediate area will immediately identify with the team as "ours" in a way they never have with the Wizards.

And while it's technically true that Richmond is roughly the same distance from DC and VB, traffic from Fredericksburg to DC makes that comparison all but invalid. I've sat in some shitty messes at the Hampton Roads Tunnel trying to get to the beach, but nothing compared to the stuff I used to face on a daily basis when I lived up in northern Va.

Living in the Richmond burbs, I most likely wouldn't buy season tickets, but my son and I would go to a bunch of games.

 

Stories in today's Sacramento Bee don't make it sound like the Kings will end up in Virginia Beach.

 

Bender wrote in his book "Call of the Game" that he didn't think Barry intended anything hostile. Barry said the same thing in a Sports Illustrated article quite a few years back.

 

Barry has never been the most politically sensitive guy. During the Atlanta child murders in the early 80s, the Hawks were wearing green ribbons for support. Barry thought they were for St. Patrick's Day.

 

Barry's pretty fucked up. If memory is correct, that's the mistake that took him off the air.
And that was after he got a hair weave.

 

Your memory is the same as mine, Drip. And Barry can still be heard on Bay Area radio today doing spots for a hair weave specialist.

 

Barry was lucky he left the Boston Garden with his teeth. Russell was one of the MOST militant of 1960s athletes.

 

It's ironic that when TBS first got its NBA contract in 1985, Barry (pxp) and Russell (color) were paired together again for a couple of years.

 

OH YOU JUST CAN'T STOP BEING RACIST CAN YOU?!?!?!?!

(Totally kidding.)

 

I had been working card shows since I was in elementary school so I had seen more than my share of athlete's behaving badly, but this was one of the few incidents where it seemed to come out of nowhere...

I told the story to Jon Barry once and he laughed his ass off.