Getting Over It Is Hard To Do

Hey Kings fans!

See if any of these sound familiar?

“Dude Luka isn’t on our team, let it go!”

“Stop harping on Dame Lillard. No one knew!”

“Everyone would’ve picked Tyreke over Steph!”

“Stop being bitter! So the H**ry shot went in! Get over it!”

If you’re a Kings fan, odds are at least one, if not all of those resonated some form of triggeration (not a word but you know what I mean).

And now over the weekend, as we opened preseason, you heard a new potential candidate:

“Giles is on Portland now, who cares!”

Yeah.

Now these all have different meanings. Obviously “The Shot” wasn’t some missed draft pick, it was a play on court which was followed by an even worse travesty (Game 6*), and so on.

But Luka, Dame, those still hurt a bit. Who knows if Harry Giles will end up flying our coop and turn into the great player so many of us think he can be. It’s a rough spot for fans:

We want so badly for Harry to be successful, but of course his success will cut deeply, depending on the level of success itself.

I especially find it amusing when fans of successful teams will suggest that Kings fans “get over it”, whatever the “it” may be. Yeah, easy for you to say. Your team isn’t the poster child for failure in American sports these days.

The Cleveland Browns and Buffalo Bills are going to make the playoffs this year. And yet, in a league where MORE THAN HALF the teams make the postseason, the Kings are embarking on their soon to be record 15th straight season of futility.

It’s like when Baxter ate the whole wheel of cheese in Anchorman– it’s almost impressive in a weird, sadistic kind of way.

How can Kings fans get over it? Look to baseball, specifically the Chicago Cubs. For years, poor Steve Bartman had to go into hiding for fear of reprisal at a simple mistake in judgement (one 99% of us would’ve made). But now, if he threw out the first pitch? Not only would he get a standing ovation, but it would be the final scene of the new 30 for 30: The Bartman Saga.

What’s the difference between now and then?

The Cubs won a title. It’s that simple.

For Kings fans, in order to replace the pain of a Lillard or Luka (or Kawhi or Steph or Klay or half the league) being missed in the draft, they need their own steal. Maybe Tyrese Haliburton is that guy, who knows.

And in order to replace “The Dagger”? They’ll have to win a title. It’s that simple.

Getting over something requires having a more pleasant experience on the other side of the thing you’re trying to get over. Think of a hurdle. Yeah, the object is to get over it, but if every time you leaped over you landed in a warm pile of manure? You’d probably be in a fairly bad mood.

Is THIS the year Kings fans see a light at the end of the tunnel? Who knows. I hope so, but my heart is blackened and leathery and scarred from the better part of two decades of futility.

But when you wonder “how do we get over it”?

Simple–you replace it with something better. 

And so far, there hasn’t been any better in sight.

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