SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It's been almost 40 years since the Kings basketball moved from Kansas City to Sacramento.
The architect of that very first team in Sacramento was Phil Johnson, the Kings former and first head coach.
"I was impressed first with how the enthusiasm was for getting a team there," said Johnson. "It was just really exciting."
Johnson first coached the then Kansas City-Omaha Kings from 1973-1978. He was fired, but rehired to coach them again in 1984.
Johnson's team practiced at the humble confines of Yuba College in Linda. At the same time, the Kings future home, Arco Arena, was still being built.
"We had Reggie Theus, Eddie Johnson and LaSalle Thompson," said Johnson. "We drafted Joe Klein. And, Joe had a hard time his first couple years playing, and he just ended up being a backup in the league."
When the Kings first arrived, there was a lot of excitement in the city and the team was treated as their namesake might suggest.
"It's a great thing for Sacramento. It's just the beginning — excited, real excited. I hope to see Sacramento's future," fans were quoted as saying in 1985.
The future was good in Johnson's first year in Sacramento after taking the Kings to the playoffs. However, they didn't make it past the first round, and things went downhill from there.
"We had some good players so we decided we could upgrade, but in hindsight, it was the wrong moves... We didn't improve our team; we got worse," said Johnson.
After an 11-32 start in his second year, Johnson was fired again, but he went on to coach the Utah Jazz as an assistant coach from 1988-2011.
While there, he was named the NBA's top assistant four times. He retired in 2011.
"I had several chances to become a head coach, but I was very happy here," he said.
Johnson says the single biggest impact since he left coaching over a dozen years ago is the three-point shot.
"The emergence of the three-point shot, the spacing of the floor because of that it makes it very difficult to defend teams because they guard the three-point shot. Well, that allows penetration," he said.
While he's a few years removed from his time in Sacramento, he closely follows today's Sacramento Kings.
"They've got an excellent roster. They've got guys that can play, and they look like they're having fun playing the game."
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