Sacramento Sports Anchor Plays Cruel Joke on Kings Fans


The least funny people on the planet are wacky “morning zoo” radio DJs. This is almost certainly a fact. Right behind them might local sports anchors who think that their schtick is hilarious. Case in point: A local Sacramento sports anchor named Jim Crandell, AKA “The Scoopmeister,” thought it would be hilarious to tweet the following prior to yesterday’s 10 p.m. newscast:

“Coming up in my show at 10 p.m. David Stern makes the announcement no Kings fan wants to hear.”

Instead, the broadcast reportedly had him repeatedly teasing the “announcement,” and when the time came for his segment, he ran archived footage from 1985 of David Stern announcing the Kings’ original move from Kansas City to Sacramento. He then ran the footage again with city names dubbed in to make it sound like the Kings were moving to Anaheim.

Predictably, many kings fans were not pleased. The blog TVNewser posted this:

The would-be joke sparked outrage among many viewers. The Kings are the only major sports team in Sacramento and the community’s enthusiasm has provided the team with one of the best home court advantages in the NBA.

After the scoop that wasn’t, Crandell had to deal with angry viewers on Twitter. “U seriously owe this city an apology for that BS u pulled 2night,” wrote one.

“YOU DO NOT MESS WITH THE HEART OF SACRAMENTO @ A TIME LIKE THIS.”

Crandell responded to Kings fan “LocalStreetHero” tweeting, “Wow, Local, you are one mad dude. Sorry you got so upset. Thankfully, most people took it in the spirit it was intended.”

The video of the broadcast is below, check it out and let us know if you think Kings fans have a right to be mad. Personally, I think they absolutely do. If the Sixers were to move, I would be devastated. And my hometown has professional baseball, football and hockey to fall back on to ease the pain of losing a franchise. Sacramento doesn’t have that luxury. For someone like Crandell, who has been with the same station in the Sacramento market for 20 years, he should have known how his “joke” was going to go over with the fans.

 

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