It has been so long since the Sacramento Kings have been relevant that it often feels like a different lifetime. It has been such a long and grueling fall from grace that it feels like those championship-contending teams played in a different NBA.
The 2002 Western Conference Finals are so often spoken of as a tragic loss, that it is easy to forget that the Kings remained contenders for a couple of years afterwards. Not only were they contenders, but the 2002-’03 team is widely considered to be the deeper and more talented of the two.