Tyreke Evans was forced to leave Friday night's close game against the Bucks, after catching an inadvertent elbow from Milwaukee's Ersan Ilyasova. It didn't appear to be that bad at first glance, but with Evans suffering a concussion, a cut to his gum, and a chipped tooth on the play, it was clearly worse than it looked.
I'm not entirely sure what "small market" means these days, but I know it's bad. In fact, I'd go so far as to suggest that it's replaced "thug" as the NBA's most loaded bit of language. "Small market" is also easily among the most vague phrases in sports. When first we said it, did it refer to actual market size (population? television stations?), a team's national notoriety, or a general mediocrity that makes us turn away in disgust?
If only things were still so simple. By now, it's a euphemism, a put-down, and a cipher for pretty much anything negative about a team that's not L.A. or the Knicks.
Bad, broke teams with no fanbase present a slew of practical concerns. However, the small market stigma has taken on a life of its own. Teams and players find themselves dealing with the perception that they are somehow inferior, or invisible, before being given the chance to prove otherwise. To make matters worse, top prospects routinely end up with teams that, for all intents and purposes, might as well not exist for a broad swath of fans. Here's a good rule of thumb: When a star is born, don't steal his diapers. Thankfully, these days may be coming to an end.
There's no better example of the "small market"-itis -- and its eventual ouster -- than Kevin Durant. When the Sonics relocated, it was just assumed that the former UT phenom had dropped off the edge of the basketball earth. Oklahoma City sounded like oblivion; therefore, Durant was written about as a man drifting off in space, bound to switch cities at the first opportunity, and just generally being wasted. All because OKC fit the nebulous description of "small market."
Ever since December, as Brandon Jennings's 55-point outburst turned into a curse, Tyreke Evans has been the hands-down favorite for the NBA's Rookie of the Year award. Evans, Sacramento's lead guard, has flirted with the rare 20-5-5 line all season, a mark only Oscar Robertson, Michael Jordan and LeBron James have ever done as rookies.
Some argue Golden State's Stephen Curry has caught Evans in the R.O.Y. race. More likely, observers are looking to manufacture excitement in the contest. Consider that Curry's best month -- 21-5-7 on 53 percent effective field goal percentage in February -- is only a bit better than Tyreke's worst month -- 20-5-5 on 48 percent eFG in November. (In fact, in February, Evans did exactly what Curry did, minus one point per game.)
Still, first leaguewide acknowledgment in years in grasp, the Kings have sought to push Evans over the top. This is how "Reke R.O.Y. Night" came about. The franchise showered Evans with love, making him the centerpiece of Wednesday's game against Toronto -- 10,000 fans got t-shirts, 5,000 got pictures of Reke's head attached to a stick, Evans got a special intro during the presentation of starting lineups, and the video screen broadcast a montage of various NBA stars heaping praise on the rookie. It was truly something Donald Trump would set up for his own birthday.
The idea that NBA teams tank to win better draft position is a bit overblown. The actual act of tanking, or losing on purpose, happens rarely. Mark Madsen hoisting threes or Doc Rivers benching a hot Ryan Gomes tend to be involved.
But something I'd call "slow-burn tanking" certainly exists. This happens when teams give up a portion of a season -- or in some cases an entire season -- for rebuilding purposes. You don't do this by playing the worst players on your team, or making unsavory in-game decisions. You do it by trading or waiving just about everyone who can play and who doesn't figure figure into your future.
The Kings did it last season, under the guise of saving salary. Trading John Salmons and Brad Miller (two of the team's three most productive players in 2008-09) certainly helped the bottom line, but it didn't free up free agent dollars (Sean May's $800,000 was the biggest offseason expense for the team) and in fact hurt long-term financial flexibility. But it made the '08-09 Kings worse, and the team easily clinched the NBA's worst record, which came with a nice prize: the best chance at Blake Griffin.
Things have been rough in Sacramento since ... well, since New Year's Day, actually. (Curse you, Kobe.) But things have been especially rough this week, as coach Paul Westphal faced an illness in the family (his wife was seriously sick) and questions about his rotation. On Tuesday, three players -- rookie dynamo Tyreke Evans, 21-year-old part-time starting center Spencer Hawes and DNP-CD magnet Sean May -- were quoted in a Sacramento Bee by Sam Amick expressing varying levels of confusion, consternation and discontentment with Westphal's seriously inconsistent rotation and playing time decisions.
The concerns were well-founded -- no team has had a rotation as flighty as that of Sacramento. Still, Westphal took issue with the tone of Hawes's comments and made him inactive for Tuesday night's game against Detroit while allowing Evans and May to play, despite the fact observers considered Hawes's quotes to be the least invective of the bunch. Throwing fuel on the fire, in his post-game comments Westphal turned the table on Hawes, responding to a question about the benching by telling reporters that Hawes surely "knew his role" now.
The idea that 
Things have been rough in Sacramento since ... well, since New Year's Day, actually. (
