With the NBA on hiatus, Sacramento Kings fans turned out in force Sunday night to catch the first annual COS Goon Squad Classic hosted by Donté Greene.  Maybe the gym wasn’t packed to the rafters, but I’ve watched enough of these promotional games to tell you that it was a huge success.  According to Lisa Allen of the COS Foundation, not counting media and family members (which easily totaled a few hundred), more than 3,000 fans were in attendance.

From my seat at the scorers table, there was a lot of good to take away from the game, most noticeably that the players appeared to be in great shape.  Of the current Sacramento Kings roster, Tyreke Evans, Jason Thompson, DeMarcus Cousins, Donté Greene, Hassan Whiteside, Jimmer Fredette and Isaiah Thomas showed up to play.  Former King Spencer Hawes, current Laker and Sacramento native Matt Barnes, and Wizards star guard John Wall also made the trip out to Sacramento, but Wall kept his hoodie on while nursing a sore groin.

Here are my impressions of the Kings players on hand.

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There have been many voices in this God forsaken NBA lockout.  Lawyers, commissioners, federal negotiators – all with some sort of spin coming at us.  Today, former Sacramento King and current Houston Rocket shooting guard Kevin Martin stepped up to the plate to voice the opinion of what has now been deemed, “the silent majority.”   Martin, not typically known for sparking controversy, spoke to SI.com’s Sam Amick via text:

If you know for sure [the owners] are not moving, then you take the best deal possible.

It appears that factions have formed within the union – the hardliners who want to decertify and fight the owners in a lengthy court battle; the union heads who are not willing to take the current deal on the table, but also not ready to decertify the union; and lastly, a large number of players who are willing to take the deal on the table, “the silent majority”, if you will.

I’m not criticizing the fight our union is doing, because they have been in every meeting adding up to countless hours and have been breaking down every number possible. I believe in them and know they have the best interest for us. My opinion — which is just one of 450 players — is that if it comes down to losing a season and 100 percent of the money, we all definitely have to sit down and think about reality. That doesn’t sound smart to possibly become part of the [country's] growing unemployment rate.

Certainly there will be backlash for Martin, but at this point, what does he and countless other players have to lose?  Hunter and Fisher have been handed their lunch in negotiations.  The decertification camp is ready to blow up the league.  Shouldn’t someone say what is on the minds of the third and most likely largest contingent of players?

No spin here.  Just a heavy dose of reality.

For more on this story, visit Sam Amick’s excellent work over at SI.com.

Reports have surfaced that Sacramento Kings restricted free agent Marcus Thornton may have passed on a substantial offer to play overseas for Maccabi Tel Aviv.  According to David Pick of Eurobasket.com:

Thornton is a huge piece to the Kings puzzle going forward and the fears of him leaving to play in Europe have been prevalent since he sent out this tweet on August 30th:

Talks have heated up between the NBA and the Player Association over the last week and hopefully they will continue to progress even further this week, which might make Thornton’s decision to wait out the lockout easier to live with.  Thornton made less than $800,000 last season for the Hornets and Kings, but is do a substantial raise once the lockout ends.  The Kings would love to have him back to start alongside former rookie of the year Tyreke Evans for the foreseeable future.

According to the ESPN/True Hoop ranking of the top 500 NBA players, Jimmer Fredette sizes up at number 273 out of a possible 500.  Each NBA player was graded from 1-10, with ten being the highest possible score.  Jimmer averaged a score of 3.55 from the 91 basketball aficionados tasked with rating the players.

This feels like the Al Gore/George W. Bush election all over again.  Was there a hanging chad?  How could this happen?  Are there really 272 NBA players that are better than Jimmer Fredette?  Is Earl Boykins really one of those 272?  This is a travesty.  I demand a recount!

I fully expect these NBA experts (myself included) to “Get Jimmered” over this one.

Kings’ big man DeMarcus Cousins turns 21-years-old today and it appears he is going to do it in style.

While Jimmer Fredette was able to pull legendary golf instructor Hank Haney out of the crowd for an on course clinic up at the American Century Championship in Lake Tahoe, DeMarcus is attempting to one up him by calling in DJ Nick Cannon to work his party.  These guys are having a horrible time during the lockout.

Noam Schiller – if you are waiting anxiously by the mailbox for that all important invitation, we have been informed that the printer messed yours up and it wasn’t “salvageable.”

Happy Birthday, DeMarcus.  Be safe and try not to go all Kendrick Perkins out there in Sin City.

The Kings haven’t had many personalities like Donté Greene.  Sure, there have been characters like Vlade Divac and Ron Artest, but Donté Greene is something different.  Basically, Greene is a multimedia machine – the star of the Donté Greene show, Twitter and Youstream aficionado- all of which make him a fan favorite.

Where Greene has cultivated a following off the court, he has struggled with consistency on the floor.  Greene is nothing short of an enigma.  So much talent, flashes of brilliance, great size, million dollar smile, but …

Coming into training camp last season, Donté Greene and Omri Casspi were supposed to fight it out for the starting gig.  Greene never even got off the ground, coming into camp at 260-pounds, a good 25-30 pounds heavier than his previous playing weight.  After starting 50 games in his second season, Greene saw that number slashed to just 21 starts and an incredible 13 DNP-CDs.   From possible starter to bench player and now, who knows what.  After the Kings brought in small forwards John Salmons and rookie Tyler Honeycutt, they shipped out Casspi to clear up a little room, but Greene will still have to battle to earn minutes at a crowded position that also includes Francisco Garcia and even Tyreke Evans at times.

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Photo by James Ham

The folks out at the 17th hole of the American Century Championship are nothing if not subtle.  As Jimmer Fredette and Charles Barkley approached the small sandy beach of Lake Tahoe’s South Shore, the ruckus crowd made noise, threw basketballs to the players and um … made proposals?  Just another day on the course for these two guys, who by all accounts garnered the largest roving crowd.

Photo by James Ham

My intention was to give these guys a few holes, then break off and catch some of the other players around the course.  That didn’t happen.  Early in the round, a mystery guest showed up on the scene to aid these two golfers in their quest to move up the leader board … or at least stop from moving all the way to the bottom.  At the request of Jimmer Fredette, world renowned swing doctor, Hank Haney joined the Fredette/Barkley twosome and the instruction began.

I would love to tell you that the two players who were tied for second to last coming into the day turned it all around and stormed for +27 points like Dallas Cowboy QB Tony Romo did.  Haney is good, but no one is that good.  What he did do, however, was help Barkley hit multiple 300+ yard drives while building an incredible foundation for Jimmer.

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Looks like the Kings have made a move, the only question is, what did they get in return?  According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo!, the Kings and their no. 7 pick are part of a blockbuster three way trade including both the Milwaukee Bucks and the Charlotte Bobcats.

WojYahooNBA Adrian Wojnarowski

Milwaukee has a three-way deal with Charlotte and Sacramento, sources say.

Partial of deal: The Bucks get Stephen Jackson, Shaun Livingston, sources say. Charlotte gets the 7th pick and Corey Maggette.

Just a bit of house keeping to take care of here for the Sacramento Kings:

The Sacramento Kings have exercised the rookie contract options on guard Tyreke Evans, forward Omri Casspi and center DeMarcus Cousins for the 2012-13 season, Kings’ President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie announced today.

Really no surprise here.  Both Evans and Cousins appear to be building block type players for the Kings, while Omri Casspi has been a nice contributor in his first two season.  So far, the Kings have announced a qualifying offer for Marcus Thornton and now the option years being picked-up for Evans, Cousins and Casspi.  Last week, the Kings waived guard Jermaine Taylor, per his request and the Kings have yet to extend the $1,091,100 qualifying offer due former Kansas Jayhawk big man Darnell Jackson or announce if Pooh Jeter’s $788,872 team option for next season has been picked-up.  All in due time.

We have just been sent an official press release from the Sacramento Kings:

KINGS WAIVE JERMAINE TAYLOR

SACRAMENTO, CA —- The Sacramento Kings today requested waivers on guard Jermaine Taylor, according to Kings’ President of Basketball Operations Geoff Petrie. Taylor averaged 7.1 points (.476 FGs, .300 3FGs, .727 FTs) in 26 games (started eight) with Sacramento.

The athletic shooting guard had a short run with the Kings were he got some burn, but after the team traded for Marcus Thornton, his minutes dried up quickly.