NBA sacramento Kings

The WNBA announced Friday afternoon that the Sacramento Monarchs, one of the league's original eight franchises, are folding and that the league is actively pursuing an ownership group for the team in the San Francisco Bay area in time for the 2010 season.

Joe and Gavin Maloof, who also own the NBA's Sacramento Kings, have owned and operated the Monarchs, but financial losses from both franchises in recent years forced them to give up the WNBA team.

"We love the Monarchs, but it's time to re-focus," Joe Maloof told the Sacramento Bee. "Everyone in this business environment ... you have to do what has to be done. Our focus is to turn the Kings around."

Yeoman beat man Sam Amick of the Sacramento Bee reports the Kings are mulling a trade offer from the Hornets that would send high-priced center Emeka Okafor to Sacramento in exchange for roleplaying, aging forward Kenny Thomas. K-9 has looked spry in early action for the Kings, but his best attribute is his $8.7 million expiring contract. Okafor is on the books through the 2013-14 season.

New Orleans acquired Okafor this summer, committing a grip of cash long-term in the process. The Hornets sent Tyson Chandler -- an expensive center himself, but on a much shorter contract -- to Charlotte in the deal, which came several months after the Hornets tried to unload Chandler for a package of expiring contracts amid the throes of a playoff chase. Chandler, however, failed his physical with the Thunder, reversing the trade.

In other words, this trade would effectively finish the job of losing Chandler's contract, and would set the tone for continued salary cuts from New Orleans. Boo to all that.

SACRAMENTO -- Sacramento Kings coach Paul Westphal and Warriors coach Don Nelson might not know it, but they find themselves in similar situations. Both are experienced coaches trying to guide young teams, each with a few veterans sprinkled in.

The expectations for both teams are low, with few believing either team will sniff the NBA's postseason. Both teams have intriguing rookie point guards (Tyreke Evans/Stephen Curry), talented but flawed shooting guards (Kevin Martin/Monta Ellis) and promising second-year power forwards (Jason Thompson/Anthony Randolph).

But stop right there. That's where the comparison ends.

Rookies. What do they know?

Not much except that, with the per diem paid over the table in NBA instead of under it in college, they need to get the donuts before practice, carry their teammates' bags and stay out of the way of the veterans.

Oh, about that last part? The Nets' Terrence Williams, rookie out of Louisville, may need to work on it a bit.

Video after the jump.

Every night there are some stupendous, silly, stupid, or downright outlandish individual lines from around the lig. Doing Lines lets you know which one tops the list.

If you're not a close follower of the NBA, then just six games or so into the season, we can't necessarily hold it against you if the name Tyreke Evans doesn't ring a bell. Besides being a rookie, Evans plays for the Sacramento Kings, a team that won just 17 games a season ago, and figured to be about as bad this year with stud scorer Kevin Martin sidelined indefinitely with an injury.

But after what Evans did to Deron Williams in leading his undermanned team to a road win in Utah on Saturday, he won't remain anonymous to basketball fans for much longer.

What a night for Kevin Martin. The dynamic guard for the Kings -- and currently the league's No. 3 scorer -- learned Thursday morning his sore wrist was actually a fractured navicular bone, a pretty brutal injury in terms of risk and recovery. Sources tell FanHouse Martin was strongly recommended by at least two doctors (including Sacramento's team doctor and a separate hand specialist) to undergo reparative surgery or to put the in a cast for 6-8 weeks. The franchise, however, left the decision to Martin, who kept a third option -- play through it wearing a soft cast -- open temporarily.

Martin told reporters he'd sleep on it and make a decision Friday. Sanity has prevailed over machismo, and Martin told the Sacramento Bee's Sam Amick today that playing with a soft cast has been ruled out. Martin will either put a hard cast on the arm, or undergo surgery.

The Kings, seeking a defensive veteran for the small forward position, took on Desmond Mason in advance of training camp. That didn't turn out so well: Mason has been beyond awful on offense (surprising no one who has watched Mason play at any point over the past four years) and didn't make much of a difference for the league's 29th ranked defense.

Five games was enough for the Sacramento front office, as the team waived Mason a day after signing former Blazer and Spur Ime Udoka to a non-guaranteed minimum salary contract. Like Mason, Udoka is known for his defensive skill, having been signed as a sort of Bruce Bowen replacement two summers ago. That didn't really work out, and Udoka was left teamless for opening day after Portland waived the swingman at the end of the preseason.

Looking back at the first week of the 2009-10 NBA season, someone missed a golden opportunity for a Halloween costume.

Wouldn't it have been great if two Lakers fans had gone as Shannon Brown and Josh Powell with the fan who was Brown holding onto a rim (a Nerf rim would have been fine) and sitting on Powell's shoulders?

"Whatever do you mean, Professor Stinkface?"

You know what I mean. Video after the jump.

When it comes to protecting yourself from rabies, it seems as if hand sanitizer won't cut it.

San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili -- three-time NBA champ, Olympic gold medalist, NBA All-Star, exterminator extraordinaire and scourge of PETA -- has been required to get shots for rabies, the San Antonio Express-News reports, because of his quick reflexes and a chance encounter with a bat on Saturday night:

Ginobili took four shots Monday in the hip and arm, and he is scheduled for four more such sessions over the next month. "It was pretty funny at the time," Ginobili told the San Antonio Express-News. "Now it's not. I got like a million shots for rabies."

DENVER -- Forget about a Tar Heel against a Dukie or a Kentucky Wildcat against a Louisville Cardinal. This is a lot different.

On Monday night in Sacramento, an Israeli player could face a player from a rival Middle East Muslim nation for the first time ever in the NBA.

Kings forward Omri Casspi is the first man from Israel ever to play in the NBA, and has three games under his belt. His team at Arco Arena next plays Memphis, which features center Hamed Haddadi, a second-year man from Iran.

Before his Grizzlies met Denver on Sunday night, Haddadi told FanHouse he never has faced an Israeli player on the court because teams from his Iran, which does not recognize the Jewish nation, are not allowed to play Israel. In 2005, Haddadi said his Iranian team was not allowed to go to Argentina for the 2005 FIBA World Championship for Young Men because of the possibility of Israel being an opponent.

But Haddadi has no problems with facing Casspi.