Christie's Strong Statement on Kings Culture

The deal was made official on May 1st, as the Kings publicly confirmed the hire. Coupled with the organization’s hiring of Scott Perry as the new General Manager, Sacramento now looks to have solidified the coaching and front office situations, and can begin to shift their focus to the upcoming offseason.

To that end, new Head Coach Doug Christie and new General Manager Scott Perry held a joint press conference on Friday to discuss the direction of the franchise and what type of team they intend to build. One of the first statements Perry made was that he fully endorses Christie as the head coach, and that he did in fact have informal conversations with other candidates before deciding to hire Christie.

One of the most interesting statements Christie made during the press conference was centered around the idea of culture. As one may expect when thinking about a team that has made precisely one playoff appearance in 19 seasons, the culture of the Sacramento Kings franchise at the moment can be accurately described as revolving around losing.

Coach Christie wants to change that reputation by establishing a culture in Sacramento wherein the team represents the fanbase and the community. To Christie, the key to culture is habits.

“A lot of people talk about culture, and for me habits build culture. Culture is a byproduct of habits, and we want to establish a very, very high level of those. But also, the ability for our team to be a physical manifestation of this community. It’s blue collar, it’s hard-working, it’s loyal. It’s so loyal that it kept the team here, and we want players that are going to represent that.”

Christie continued, “When they (the fans) come through the turnstiles, and when they leave, they know that they’ve gotten every piece of what they thought  - heart, soul, blood, sweat, tears - they get it all. That’s what this community is about, and I think that’s what Scott (Perry) is saying, to echo him, is what we want to be about.”

Those of us who tend to be more cynical are likely hearing that statement and offering up some variation of “we’ve heard this so many times before”. They’re not wrong, and of course Christie was going to say something like that in the press conference. There is no reason to doubt his sincerity, but one can be excused for wanting to be shown rather than told at this point.

However, the fact that it hasn’t come to fruition in years past with other coaches doesn’t mean that it can’t happen with Doug Christie. I find Christie to be a thoughtful, engaging man who clearly knows basketball and has deep roots in Sacramento. 

Christie is as invested in the Kings’ success as anyone else and intends to usher in a new era based on the culture he outlined. Kings fans just have to hope that this is the coach, this is the time, and success is right around the corner.