SACRAMENTO KINGS
Somebody Call These Guys a Cab

What is it with the Sacramento Kings and dangerous driving? The biggest splash that the Sacramento Kings made in the 2010 off-season was one the team would like to forget, a roadway incident that ended with star guard Tyreke Evans arrested at gunpoint. Over Memorial Day weekend, the reigning NBA rookie of the year was handcuffed and briefly detained after California Highway Patrol officers spotted him tearing down Interstate 80 in his Mercedes at speeds of 120 to 130 miles per hour.

The CHP released a long video of Evans' own personal Cannonball Run, filmed from an aerial patrol unit, that was simultaneously hypnotizing and terrifying to watch. As Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee put it, "You have to watch the entire video to appreciate the speed, the danger, the prolonged recklessness of the Tyreke Evans speeding incident on May 31. If this were a video game, someone would be dead by now."

The episode called into question Evans' judgment at precisely the time that he was expected to step up as the team's leader. But it also brought to mind a string of vehicular missteps that have plagued the team in recent years. The last savior-apparent to swagger into Sacramento, Kevin Martin, landed in hot water in 2005 after a reporter riding in his black Cadillac CTS documented the then-rookie doing 85 on I-80 without a seat belt. This past February, the Kings shipped Martin to Houston after it became apparent that he and Evans were not compatible on the court.

The next year, newly appointed head coach Eric Musselman, who was supposed to bring order and discipline to the freewheeling franchise, was arrested for drunken driving after an exhibition game. The discipline, unsurprisingly, never took, and Musselman was fired after one disappointing season. He can now be found in basketball Siberia, coaching the Reno Bighorns of the NBA Developmental League.

The entire Kings campaign of this year, and possibly the next few to come, rests on Evans proving that his Memorial Day lapse was just a one-off, a stupid mistake by a young kid with more money than sense. At just 21 years of age, he ought to have some room to grow and mature.

And if Evans can fulfill his potential, look out. Last year, Evans became only the fourth player in NBA history to average 20 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists in his rookie season. The first two players to achieve that feat, Oscar Robertson and Michael Jordan, are in the NBA Hall of Fame. And the third, LeBron James, is well on his way.

Even with a bona fide star in the making, however, it's hard to find enough talent on the Kings roster to engender much hope for the season. The team's management deserves praise for retaining much of its young core, including Evans' promising second-year counterpart Omri Casspi and big man Jason Thompson, while also adding Samuel Dalembert, a veteran center with a knack for rebounding and shot blocking.

But Dalembert is a known quantity, and even with optimistic improvements from Casspi and Thompson, it would take a Herculean effort from Evans to push the Kings into playoff contention. This is a team that finished 25-57 last year, dropping 11 of the final 12 games to sink past the Warriors and claim the worst record in the Pacific Division.

The only upside to that dismal finish was a favorable entry in the draft lottery; the Kings nabbed University of Kentucky center DeMarcus Cousins with the fifth pick in the draft. Cousins is a physical force with legitimate NBA size and an enormous wingspan, but his movements on the court sometimes appear a little leaden, and many have questioned his maturity.

Like Evans, Cousins is a young player with little collegiate experience and plenty of room to grow into himself. Let's just hope his youth doesn't show, the way Evans' did on Memorial Day, and the way Martin's did before that.