No matter how many clichés he uses or how many times he says it, it won't be just another game.
When Kevin Martin makes his first trip to ARCO Arena in a visitor's jersey tonight, it will be a bittersweet return to a place he called his home for five and a half seasons. The Sacramento fans, many of whom had turned on Martin after he suffered numerous injuries and struggled to coexist with Tyreke Evans, will undoubtedly give him a long ovation during the pregame introductions, 53 days after a nine-player deal sent him packing and reshaped the future and direction of the franchise.
Martin, who's averaged 20.3 points per game in 22 contests with the Rockets, half a point above his season output in Sacramento, won't be the first long-tenured King set out to prove his former team made a mistake by trading him. The high scoring guard struggled in his first game against his old squad in Houston on March 3, putting up 14 points on 3-of-13 from the field and committing four turnovers in a losing effort. As much as Martin hopes the added motivation will make his homecoming different and more than just sentimental, much like the once beloved star players who came and went before him, he's likely to leave with little more than the gracious applause of a crowd that has moved on without him.
34-year-old Mitch Richmond, traded to Washington in 1998 after seven seasons as a King, had to wait a year and half to make his return Sacramento after the lockout-shortened season. Although he came into the game averaging a career low 16.9 points per game, the one-time Kings captain started out red hot, pouring in 20 points in the first 12 minutes and tying the building record for field goals in one quarter (nine). Corliss Williamson later said he thought the six-time All-Star would go off for 50 points. But Richmond hit only two shots over the final three quarters to finish with 26 points on 29 field goal attempts, the highest number of shots he took in 225 games after leaving the Kings. He was held without a basket in the fourth while Sacramento came from behind to win on a game-ending 34-14 run.
Chris Webber made his Philadelphia debut at home against his old Kings team two days after being traded, and came back to ARCO Arena a month later. Greeted by a minute-long standing ovation from the same fans who once booed him when he came back rusty after microfracture surgery, he put up his customary line of 20 points and 10 rebounds. But like Richmond, Webber cooled off considerably after a hot start, missing 17 of his final 21 field goal attempts and netting three points, one rebound, and two turnovers in the final period of a 118-109 Sacramento victory. Although the Los Angeles Lakers defeated the Kings in Vlade Divac's return to Sacramento in 2004, it had little to do with the former Kings center, who went scoreless and missed his only shot in just three minutes off the bench in his final, injury-plagued season.
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