Lakers-Kings rivalry
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The Lakers-Kings Rivalry describes the rivalry between two National Basketball Association teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Sacramento Kings. Their often tense meetings have inspired a rivalry between the teams as well as their respective fans.
The rivalry is recent, having started in 2000, as both teams rose to prominence, but has taken on a number of different dimensions, such as Northern California vs. Southern California, state capital vs. largest city. Shaquille O'Neal famously called the Sacramento Kings team the "Sacramento Queens" as an insult, and Lakers coach Phil Jackson called the city a "Cow Town", to which Kings fans responded by clanging cowbells at home games. Phil Jackson later apologized after he was fined $10,000 by the NBA for his comments about Sacramento.
[edit] 2002 Western Conference Finals
On the court, the games between the two teams were definitely intense, culminating in the 2002 NBA Western Conference Finals, which featured Robert Horry's famous last-second three-pointer to beat the Kings in Game 4, a 1 point Kings win off of a Bibby field goal in the waning seconds of Game 5, a controversially officiated Game 6 resulting in a narrow Laker win, and finally a Game 7 with 19 lead changes and 16 ties producing a Lakers overtime win.
[edit] Aftermath of the 2002 Western Conference Finals
After the 2002 Western Conference Finals, the Lakers went on to win the 2002 NBA Championship by sweeping an overmatched New Jersey Nets. Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals has been cited as one of the motivations for a new rule in the NBA, allowing referees to review buzzer-beating shots at the end of every quarter. However, if the NBA referees did have the ability to check the instant replay at the end of the first half of the game, it would have shown the world beyond a reasonable doubt, that Samaki Walker's miracle half-court shot was still in his hands during and after the expiration of the 2nd quarter. In a game between the Kings and Lakers in the 2003 preseason, a fight broke out on-court in the 1st quarter 2 minutes into the game between Kings guard Doug Christie and Lakers forward Rick Fox. After being separated, the two were ejected from the game, to their teams' respective locker rooms. Rick Fox jogged around to confront Doug Christie again as Christie was leaving the court. The two players fought at the locker room alley that involved both Kings and Lakers bench. The altercation resulted in Fox being suspended 6 games and Christie suspended 2 games.
At a WWE RAW show in 2003, The Rock got what is known as "heat" when he was singing a song about leaving Sacramento. The last words of the song were "I'll be sure to come back when the Lakers beat the Kings in May." Ironically, the Kings never played the Lakers that year in the Playoffs as the Lakers were eliminated by the Spurs.
Currently this rivalry is dormant. This is a result of all of the personnel changes and the fall of the Lakers and Kings as NBA powerhouses. Shaquille O'Neal has since been traded to Miami. Rick Fox has retired. Chris Webber was traded to Philadelphia, and Vlade Divac retired after briefly playing for the Lakers in the 2004-2005 season. The Lakers failed to make the playoffs the year following the O'Neal trade. Furthermore, Kings lost defensive player Doug Christie, 6th Man specialist Bobby Jackson, and recently, Peja Stojakovic, in a trade with the Indiana Pacers for controversial player, Ron Artest.
