Category: Sacramento Kings Blog

On Friday (today) the Sacramento Kings will work out Kevin Bell (Fresno State), Malik Hairston (Oregon), Kosta Koufos (Ohio State), JaVale McGee (Nevada), Sean Singletary (Virginia), Deron Washington (Virginia Tech).

The Sacramento Bee (Martin McNeal) reports: Joe Axelson, the first general manager of the Sacramento Kings, bore the brunt of much criticism during his tenure, but little from those who worked with him. Axelson died Saturday at age 80 at his Coronado home, his son, David, also a former Kings employee, said Sunday. Joe Axelson was the team’s GM in 1985 when the franchise moved from Kansas City, Mo., and therefore ran the show when the Kings made the playoffs in their first season here at the old Arco Arena. Kings player personnel director and television commentator Jerry Reynolds said it became “a sad day” Sunday when he learned of Axelson’s death from Mike Duncan, the vice president of arena programming.

The AP reports: Over his career with the Royals-Kings franchise, he was responsible for some controversial trades, including swapping Oscar Robertson to Milwaukee in 1970 after Robertson squabbled with coach Bob Cousy and asked to leave Cincinnati. The Royals had to settle for Charlie Paulk and Flynn Robinson in the trade. Axelson at other times traded away Jerry Lucas, Nate Archibald and Norm Van Lier.

The Sacramento Kings and Maloof family today exercised the option on President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie’s contract for the 2009-10 season.

“We’ve had the privilege of working with Geoff for the past nine years and consider him to be the best general manager in the NBA,” explained Kings owner Joe Maloof. “He’s respected league-wide for his dedication to the game, innovation, scouting and diligence. We look forward to our continued work with Geoff as we bring the Kings back to prominence.”

A two-time NBA Executive of the Year award winner, Petrie has been a key figure behind the success of the Sacramento Kings over the past 14 years.

“I want to thank Joe, Gavin, and the rest of the Maloof family for their ongoing trust, loyalty and support,” said Petrie. “We are all committed to working diligently in the present so as to ensure a more productive, exciting and entertaining future for our fans, players and staff.”

Under Petrie’s direction, the Kings have qualified for the NBA Playoffs in eight of the past 10 campaigns and nine of the past 13 years overall, while winning Pacific Division titles in 2001-02 and 2002-03 and advancing to the 2002 Western Conference Finals. Between 2000-01 and 2004-05, Sacramento joined San Antonio and Dallas as the only teams in the league to register 50-plus wins in each of those years.

When Petrie was named The Sporting News NBA Executive of the Year following the 1998-99 campaign, he became the first person to win both the league’s executive and rookie annual awards. Petrie shared the 1971 NBA Rookie of the Year award with Boston’s Dave Cowens. Following the 2000-01 season, Petrie was named the Sporting News Executive of the Year for a second time.

Sacramento Kings forward Ron Artest underwent successful surgery today to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb.  Dr. Michelle Carlson performed the procedure at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.

Artest will wear a removable splint for six weeks and return to full basketball activities in approximately eight to 10 weeks.

Sacramento Kings’ center Brad Miller underwent successful surgery today at the UC Davis Medical Center to remove a bone chip in his right elbow. Dr. Richard Marder performed procedure.  
 
Miller will resume basketball activities in approximately three to four weeks.