Kings Court: A Love Letter to Sacramento

By Mark Samra

Sacramento had waited seventeen years for a team like this.

Built around Chris Webber, Mike Bibby, Vlade Divac, Peja Stojakovic, Doug Christie, Bobby Jackson, and a revolutionary offense shaped by Rick Adelman and Pete Carril, the 2001-02 Sacramento Kings played basketball with imagination, precision, and uncommon trust. They won sixty-one games, captured the NBA's best record, and carried an overlooked California capital to the edge of history.

Standing in their way were the two-time defending champion Los Angeles Lakers-Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, and Phil Jackson-pursuing basketball immortality and a third consecutive championship.

Their collision produced one of the most unforgettable playoff series in NBA history: Robert Horry's devastating Game 4 shot, Mike Bibby's heroics in Game 5, the disputed whistles and twenty-seven fourth-quarter Lakers free throws in Game 6, and a crushing overtime defeat inside ARCO Arena in Game 7. Sacramento's championship never came, but the questions surrounding that series never disappeared.

KINGS COURT is a cinematic historical sports epic tracing the franchise's journey from Rochester and its 1951 championship through Cincinnati, Kansas City-Omaha, Kansas City, and its long-awaited arrival in Sacramento. It brings together the players, coaches, broadcasters, executives, and devoted fans who transformed a struggling organization into the beating heart of a community.

Blending carefully documented history with restrained dramatic reconstruction, Mark R. Samra tells the story of a wandering franchise that finally found a home, a remarkable team that changed the way basketball could be played, and a city that has never forgotten what happened when it came within one victory of the NBA Finals.

This is more than the story of a lost championship.

It is a love letter to Sacramento-and to the team that taught an entire region to believe.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0HMPX4M35
• ISBN13: 9798161771167
• Release Date: October 2026
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 222 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 9.0"