Fashion was the name of the game for this month's Third Saturday event held at the Westfield Galleria at the Downtown Plaza in Sacramento. Sacramento News and Review presented the event with Tais serving as emcee. Tais was there without his shadow Adam Saake but was there with his much lovelier fiancé. Instagon was the only musical guess during the time I was at the event. Fans of their music were able to enjoy an extra long set of their performance. A couple of the same vendors from previous months came back this month to sell their merchandise. Many new vendors occupied spots in the courtyard in front of Macy's. Corey de Roo owner of the French Cuff Consignment was on hand to introdu

The Sacramento Kings will host a Community Book Drive at Natomas Pacific Pathways Preparatory School (NP3) - 3700 Del Paso Road, Sacramento, CA 95834, on Saturday, October 23 from 3–4:30 p.m. as part of the 2010 NBA Cares Week of Service and to celebrate the five-year anniversary of NBA Cares, which the league and its partners launched on Oct. 18, 2005. Through the NBA Cares program, the league and its teams and players have donated more than $145 million to charity, completed more than 1.4 million hours of community service and created more than 525 places where kids and families can live, learn or play. Kings players DeMarcus Cousins, Donté Greene, Jason Thompson and Pooh Jeter will be

The Sacramento Kings are inviting all Kings super fans to Round Table Pizza located at 3290 Arena Blvd. at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 19, for a Kings Super Fan Photo Shoot. To participate, super fans must visibly show their Kings spirit in three or more ways which can include wearing lots of purple, Kings-branded attire, Kings jerseys, foam fingers, Kings hats, beads, purple wigs or any other creative ways to show they are truly Kings super fans. Pictures from the Super Fan Photo Shoot will be used in Kings marketing materials and on Kings.com throughout the season. Registration begins at 5 p.m., and photos will be taken from 5-7:30 p.m. At 7:30 p.m., a special panel of judges will determin

With the Kings down Beno Udrih and Samuel Dalembert out and the small forward position up for grabs, Coach Paul Westphal is still searching for a winning starting lineup. The Golden State Warriors held it close for three quarters Tuesday, but it was the Kings who secured their second preseason win by pulling away in the final period to win 116-97 at Arco Arena. The Kings had six players scoring in double figures and a balanced rebounding effort making for a solid fourth quarter. A three-point lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter turned into a 22-point lead late in the game thanks to a strong defense and converting turnovers into points. Both teams had stretches of sloppiness, eac

As part of the NBA Cares campaign, “Paint the Town,” the Sacramento Kings will be greeting fans throughout the Sacramento region Saturday, October 16 and Sunday, October 17 to thank them for their support in advance of the 2010-11 Kings season. The entire Kings training camp roster, members of the Sacramento Kings Dance Team, Slamson and the Kings Breakers will interact with the Sacramento community at various locations. Fans are encouraged to attend and players will be available to greet and interact with fans. Additionally, the Kings Karavan, a Kings-branded bus, will be on display at select locations and exciting Kings prizes will be awarded to Kings fans on-site. Following is the fu

You’re sitting there minding your own business when a purple- and black-dressed aficionado scampers over and hands you a free, delicious, piping hot, pepperoni-laced, cheese-dripping piece of mouthwatering pizza. Just a fantasy? Not anymore. The Sacramento Kings and their promotions and publicity department continue to lead the league when it comes to banging the drum for the local basketball team. On top of giving the loyal fan base just a hardworking group of guys on the floor every game, they are now handing out more than their fair share of pizza at each Kings home game this season. With the economy still in the tank, the Kings have come out reaching for the rafters again this seaso

The Sacramento Kings have decided to promote from within and elevate Shareef Abdur-Rahim from the position of assistant coach, a role he’s held for the past two years, to the front office position of assistant general manager. Abdur-Rahim is now one of the few players ever to be a longtime player (12 years), a coach and now rounding it all out by becoming part of the management team alongside Kings’ President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie. Abdur-Rahim, a soft-spoken man, said he was very grateful for the opportunity. “It’s a great opportunity from the organization,” Abdur-Rahim said. “The Maloof family, Geoff Petrie and Wayne Cooper have given me a great chance to part of this or

It all began just like any other training camp gathering. The players hit the floor to do some stretching, jogging and even doing the “monster walk” to get flexible and be ready to bang some bodies. It was a day like any other day this past week. Except this time, there was a major difference. The practice had been moved out of the Kings’ practice facility and over to Arco Arena. Oh, and one more thing. There were people watching – lots of people. The Sacramento Kings raised the curtain on their new-look team on Sunday for all to see for the first time since making some major acquisitions and building their team with draft picks in the off season. It was the first scrimmage held this y

On the Sacramento Kings’ to-do list of creating interest in this year’s team, the first was a rip-roaring good time this past Saturday at Arco Arena. The “Box Office Party” was the opening salvo in a barrage of activities the Kings are planning for community outreach and awareness during the upcoming season. And with the Kings Dance Team, some players and a free hot dog on tap for anyone purchasing a ticket for a future game, the preseason optimism, compared to recent years, is sky high. The word of the day was “exciting,” and it seemed to be gushing out of everyone’s mouths: fans, players and Kings’ personnel alike. Joe Crawford, a second-year guard out of Kentucky who is trying to mak

Kings training camp continued last week with two-a-days Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday as the guys got in some significant work on the hardwood. Finally, on Friday, the team went to one practice per day for most of the rest of camp. With much preparation before the first practice, which is open to the public on Sunday, the guys are learning new sets and gearing up for the preseason. Training Camp – day three Lob Pass Samuel Dalembert and Antoine Wright were available for the morning workout . . . More five-on-none as they worked on setting screens and making sure the players know where to be on some of the new sets the team has put in this year . . . Lots of guys stayed after practice

Kings training camp kicked off Monday, and when the day was over, it was all sweat and smiles at their facility in Natomas. The Court Jester was there, and here are some observations: Training camp – day one Lob Pass The Kings worked on defense and five-on-none offense as the guys were trying to find their spacing and where to be on the floor in certain sets . . . Head Coach Paul Westphal was seen checking notes from his back pocket making sure he was staying on-track . . . Samuel Dalembert was helping guys find the right spot on the floor during a certain set . . . Hassan Whiteside was setting some nice screens and really looking bulked up . . . Pooh Jeter was looking to get others in

It was like driving up to Mendocino County and getting out of the car only to find yourself standing in the Land of the Giants – big, strong redwoods that could be seen out of every corner of your eye. The evidence was clear. The new direction has been established. This year, the Kings will not go quietly into the night. The abundance of wingspans and altitude was on display as the Sacramento Kings opened their 26th annual media day at Arco Arena on Monday. With all the local news outlets and many national folks on-hand, the question of the day was clearly the acquisition of several new big men and how the team’s newfound height would impact the team. “I think we’ve changed our team rad

In the second part of my two-part look at the Kings prior to training camp and preseason activities, I focus on the forward situation and possible lineups that Head Coach Paul Westphal could throw out there to start the season. Since going to print with part one, the Kings have added one more forward to the roster. Marcus Landry is a 6-foot 7-inch second-year forward out of Wisconsin who is also Carl Landry’s younger brother. Add to that the previously mentioned forwards – Conner Atchley, Darnell Jackson and six-year pro Antoine Wright – and you’ve got four players vying for maybe one spot. I think that this is so much easier to do than calculating what the staff will do with the guard s

California Exposition and State Fair officials said no Friday to being part of an arena land swap deal. At the end of a four-hour meeting, the board voted 7-2 against further study of a proposal by developer Gerry Kamilos and the Sacramento Convergence team to relocate the state fairgrounds to Arco Arena in Natomas and to develop the 350-acre Cal Expo site to help finance a new arena downtown. Board members said they want proceeds from Cal Expo's development to benefit the state fairgrounds and the state, rather than a private company and an arena. The Cal Expo board has already spent too much time studying ideas to modernize the fairgrounds by helping to get an arena built, they said.

A couple of Sacramento Kings players visited a West Sacramento youth gathering site the other day, and while it wasn’t a typical day at the office for Francisco Garcia and Beno Udrih, it was, in some respects, much more rewarding. Garcia and Udrih were at the Collings West Sacramento Teen Center on Tuesday to announce a special gift to the kids at the center and youngsters like them across the area. Between the two of them, they have purchased 50 lower-level season tickets to give away to children considered at-risk in our community. For each of them, it was just another in a long line of gifts they’ve given the area that they hope will keep on giving. The setting was perfect for the gen

Every year at this time, a group of young NBA hopefuls gather at the Sacramento Kings’ training facility in an effort to impress the coaching staff enough to get a shot at their dream – making an NBA roster. Usually, prospective players are brought in only to give the main roster someone to scrimmage against or in case someone goes down with an injury. The difference this year is that it looks like two of them have a real chance of making the team and getting playing time. With 10 spots all but sealed-up, there should be some real competition going on during training camp and early in the preseason. In this two-part look at what the Kings’ options appear to be in searching for the ultim

  The Sacramento Kings are looking to keep fans excited throughout the upcoming season by launching the season-long "Here We Rise" campaign Thursday afternoon. Recently, they hung up the largest banner in the history of the Sacramento area on the side of the California State Teachers' Retirement System (CalSTRS) building in West Sacramento that can be seen from Interstate-5. The 177-foot banner, which features last season's Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans and rookie DeMarcus Cousins, is part of the team's new campaign called. "'Here We Rise' is a tribute to the Kings and the Sacramento Kings community coming together," Kings co-owner Gavin Maloof said in front of the CalSTRS building.

The City Council on Tuesday revisited the city’s 2003 loan agreements with the Sacramento Kings and decided to keep them in effect. City Treasurer Russ Fehr said he discovered the possible issue with the old loan agreement a few months ago. He said he discussed the matter with City Attorney Eileen Teichert, and she suggested that the current City Council examine the contract because it didn’t go before council members in 2003. The Kings’ remaining debt to the city is $68 million, according to Fehr. In 1997, the Kings and the city signed a contract that permitted the Kings to pay back its loans to the city after reimbursing $30 million in debt to another party, Fehr said. Then, in 2003,

According to a pair of reports from Yahoo! Sports writers Marc Spears and Adrian Wojnarowski on Twitter, free agent shooting guards Luther Head and J.R. Giddens will be attending the Sacramento Kings training camp this fall. Head, 27, is a 6-foot-3-inch, 185-pound guard who has spent five seasons with the Houston Rockets, Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers. His sophomore season was his best, averaging 10.9 points, 3.1 rebounds, 2.4 assists and one steal per game during the 2006-07 season. Last season, he played 47 games with the Pacers averaging 7.6 points on 43.8 percent shooting 17.3 minutes per game. Giddens, 25, is a 6-foot-6-inch, 215-pound guard who spent one and a half seasons with t

The NBA has suspended Tyreke Evans for one game without pay for reckless driving after he was caught speeding up to 130 mph by the California Highway Patrol on Memorial Day. Evans, who won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award last season, will miss the Kings' first game on Oct. 27 at Minnesota against the Timberwolves but will still be able to play in the preseason games. Evans was sentenced to three years of informal probation, 80 hours of alternative sentencing and his driver's license was suspended for 30 days after pleading no contest to the offense. He is also scheduled to appear in one more CHP Smart Start Driving class after participating in his first. Photo by Vincent Fernandez.