"Going to be a year from hell" - Zach Lowe publicly spews 'hate' on Sacramento Kings before Russell Westbrook signing

Former ESPN analyst Zach Lowe is not a fan of the Sacramento Kings heading into the 2025-26 NBA season. The Kings also signed Russell Westbrook to a one-year deal just a week before the start of the campaign. Westbrook is coming off a bounce-back season with the Denver Nuggets.

On the latest episode of "The Bill Simmons Podcast," Lowe and Simmons held their NBA Over/Unders show to preview the upcoming season. When they got into the Kings, both were not a fan of what the struggling franchise has done this offseason.

Lowe went off on the Kings, saying that he hates the team and what they have done two years after breaking their playoff drought.

"I hate this team," Lowe said. "I hate this roster. I hate that Keegan Murray is already injured. I hate the vibes, I hate everything. I think this is going to be a year from hell for the Kings. ... I think this is the Hindenburg of NBA teams this year."

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Bill Simmons chimed in, and he also doesn't like the Sacramento Kings because of what they have done to their fan base. The Kings fans showed them a lot of support over the years despite the threat of moving and all the losing basketball they were putting on.

"Light The Beam" was a success, but the franchise failed to follow it up and ended up blowing things by trading De'Aaron Fox. They also tried to make things work by getting DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine, who didn't accomplish anything during their time with the Chicago Bulls.

"They've have one playoff series appearance in since '06," Simmons said. "They haven't won a playoff series since '04. They haven't made the Finals ever (in Sacramento), and they just seem to keep popping up whenever weird sh*t happens with the NBA. ... They just decided to reassemble the 2023 Chicago Bulls was Sabonis and that's where we are now."

The Sacramento Kings did add Dennis Schroder, who is coming off leading Germany to win the 2025 EuroBasket.

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Sacramento Kings sign Russell Westbrook

If Zach Lowe didn't like the Sacramento Kings before, he probably hates them more now after signing Russell Westbrook. The Kings added the former MVP with less than a week before the season, as per ESPN's Shams Charania.

Westbrook has ties with the Kings and is reportedly close to Domantas Sabonis, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine. He's from Los Angeles, and so are DeRozan and LaVine.

Edited by Juan Paolo David