The Kings brought a familiar face into training camp on Tuesday, and Chris Webber wasted no time getting a look at the group Doug Christie is trying to shape.
General manager Scott Perry invited Webber, and multiple reports say he’s expected to stay with the team through the rest of the week. During practice, he watched Sacramento work through drills while Christie pushed his players hard and kept stopping things to reset the action.
That was the tone throughout the session. Christie repeatedly interrupted drills to demand better passes and cleaner finishes, making it clear he’s trying to establish the standards he and Perry want in place before next season begins.
Sacramento is coming off a 22-60 season that left it tied with the Utah Jazz for the fourth-worst record in the league. Even with multiple top-end talents back healthy after injury, the outside view hasn’t changed much. ESPN, for one, projected the Kings to fall to 19-63, a mark that would leave them deep in the draft-relegation conversation and hurt their lottery odds.
Christie is trying to push back against that picture, and Webber’s presence only sharpened the message. The coach pointed to the franchise legend’s impact in Sacramento and framed the current group’s task in similar terms.
“He came to this city and did something that hadn’t been done," Christie said. "That’s what we’re trying to do.”
Webber’s Sacramento run stretched from 1999 to 2005 under Rick Adelman, and it came with the franchise’s most successful stretch. The Kings reached the playoffs in eight straight seasons during that span.
Their deepest postseason run came in 2002, when they reached the Western Conference Finals and pushed the then-back-to-back champion Los Angeles Lakers to seven games. Game 7 delivered the kind of tension fans never forget. Mike Bibby led the team with 29 points and hit the game-tying free throws that sent the night into overtime.
That season, Webber put up 24.5 points, 10.1 rebounds, 4.8 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.8 blocks per game. He also earned his third straight All-Star selection and made the All-NBA Second Team.
For this Kings team, that level of playoff success remains far away. Christie is juggling two timelines at once, trying to manage veterans and youth while the rebuild continues.
Early on, he’s expected to lean on Domantas Sabonis and Zach LaVine to give the team its best chance to win games. Later, Perry is expected to shift the focus toward development, with rookie Darius Acuff Jr. becoming a bigger part of the plan.
Even in that mix, Webber stands out as a steady voice for both sides of the roster. Sabonis, in particular, is the closest current King to Webber when it comes to Sacramento playoff accomplishment after helping end the team’s 16-year playoff drought in 2023.
In Other News...
Kings Media Day Took An Awkward Turn The Team Can't Ignore
Media day is supposed to be a clean reset, a chance for the Kings to introduce the new season with a little polish and a lot of optimism. Instead, Sacramentos gathering ended up producing the kind of off-camera moment teams hate, with reporters caught on a hot mic making unprofessional comments about Ben Simmons and Zach LaVine, two players the Kings have every reason to put front and center as they try to reshape the conversation around this roster.
The awkwardness lands differently because it is not happening in a vacuum. Sacramento signed Simmons to a one-year deal and brought LaVine in via trade in February 2025, so the franchise has already invested real attention in how both players are received and discussed. It also echoes the recent hot-mic episode in Toronto involving Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Mogbo, which only makes this look less like a one-off slip and more like the sort of around-the-team distraction organizations would rather not keep revisiting. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Media Day Controversy Has Fans Waiting For Fallout
Sacramentos media day was supposed to set the tone for a new season, but instead it became a bigger talking point for everything around the Kings than the team itself. A leaked audio recording from the event captured reporter Sara Hodges making disparaging remarks about Ben Simmons and Zach LaVine, and the clip spread quickly across social media, turning a routine day on the calendar into a public relations headache.
The reaction did not stop with fans, either, as former NBA player Royce White also weighed in and added more fuel to the discussion. For now, though, the most notable part of the story is the silence around it, with neither the Kings nor Hodges publicly addressing what was said as the fallout continues to simmer. [Read more 🡒]
Kings Media Day Viral Clip Creates An Awkward Early Distraction
Sacramentos annual media day is usually built around clean sound bites, new-season optimism and the usual round of player-photo duties. This one picked up an awkward extra layer when a video clip circulating online captured female reporters making comments about Zach LaVine and Ben Simmons, turning a routine day on the calendar into an unexpected talking point around the Kings.
Hunter LaVine later added her own light touch to the moment, responding on Instagram with a reaction that nodded to the timing of the incident. The reporters in the clip have not been officially identified, and while the episode was more awkward than serious, it was still enough to give a typically controlled media-day setting an early jolt no one around the team likely wanted. [Read more 🡒]