Kings deny report Vivek Ranadivé turned team dinner into a ‘roast’

The Kings are pushing back on a report that owner Vivek Ranadivé used a recent team dinner to roast players, coaches and executives.

Zach Lowe said Thursday on The Zach Lowe Show that Ranadivé addressed the group during training camp and began calling out ways in which people throughout the organization had been failing.

“They went out to a fancy training camp dinner, team, the whole team, the staff, everything,” Lowe said. “And at the dinner, Vivek Ranadivé spoke, and he kind of turned the dinner into a roast of lots of people in the room.”

Lowe added that some people in attendance were “alarmed” by how the message was landing, while others understood it as an attempt to use Sacramento’s reputation around the league as motivation.

The Kings, however, say that characterization goes too far.

According to FOX40, the organization said Ranadivé’s comments were intended to be lighthearted and motivational, not a public takedown of his own team. The Kings also said Ranadivé opened by making fun of himself and remains fully supportive of the players and staff.

So, was it a roast? Depends who you ask. What isn’t really up for debate is that Sacramento enters this season with plenty to prove.

The Kings went 22-60 last year and have reached the playoffs just once since Ranadivé purchased the franchise in 2013.

That makes the reported message pretty easy to understand, even if the delivery apparently landed differently around the room.

The Kings have become a punch line in plenty of NBA circles.

Ranadivé’s message, according to the team, was essentially this: Prove everybody wrong.