Sacramento Kings going all out to convince Rudy Gay to stay
By Josh Hill
The Sacramento Kings weren’t able to turn their season around when they acquired Rudy Gay from the Toronto Raptors this past season but that’s not going to stop them from trying to keep him around to see how high he can take them.
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Gay is someone that more than a few teams will covet in free agency this summer and the Kings are trying to convince him that Sacramento is the place he needs to be and leaving to go play somewhere else is a mistake. It’s a hard sell for the Kings to make, but they’re certainly getting creative in trying.
According to Marc J. Spears, the Kings aren’t just having a simple sit down with Gay to ask him to stay with the team, they’re rolling out all the traditional stops and even ones we haven’t heard of yet.
"Hall of Famers Chris Mullin and Mitch Richmond, a former Kings star, are expected to join Kings owner Vivek Ranadive, general manager Pete D’Alessandro and head coach Michael Malone when they meet with Gay.During the meetings, the Kings also will have Gay wear a headset with eyewear that will give him a complete virtual digital tour of the inside of the new Kings arena, including the locker room and arena floor. The new Kings arena is expected to open in September 2016."
It’s one thing to beg a player to stay, it’s another thing to give him a virtual reality tour of a new arena and roll out technologically advanced ways of convincing him to stay.
Gay may not be all that impressed with the new arena, as he will likely be more interested in how the Kings are going to improve their roster but you can’t fault the Kings for being creative. The question though is if Gay values the appeal of a new stadium over the allure of a winning roster somewhere else.