It was Planet Orange but hardly recognizable. No towel flying in the face of the head coach, accompanied by a soundtrack of curse words. No shoving, pouting or grandstanding, just a good old-fashioned basketball game with a high-energy leader, a roster that could assemble a boy band and a crowd willing to let bygones be bygones, at least for an evening.
Aren’t season openers grand?
For the first time in a while, Talking Stick Resort Arena smelled like hope.
But just a whiff.
Listen, it wasn’t pretty. The Sacramento Kings led by as much as 26.