BORING? Chris Webber should realize things could be worse.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

OAKLAND, Calif. _ Boring? Warriors fans could help Chris Webber out with a definition of the word.

To Webber, Sacramento is boring. The soon-to-be free agent recently told a reporter, "I'm bored to death here everyday," and his words immediately bumped the state's energy crisis to the No. 2 concern in the Capital City. (Though observers noted that on Wednesday, Webber stayed in boring Sacramento, behind the gates of his boring Granite Bay mansion, rather than head south with his team to the interesting Bay Area).

Warriors fans might be able to help their old friend C-Webb with a better definition of boring. Boring is missing the playoffs for seven consecutive seasons. Boring is averaging only 20 wins in a six-month season. Boring is a team that _ for the better part of a decade _ has tried, in vain, to find a glimmer of hope somewhere, anywhere.

For the Warriors, that glimmer is locked in the training room or resides in the draft lottery, same as it was last year and the year before. That's boring.

What isn't boring is the Sacramento Kings. The Kings, who beat the Warriors 122-101, are deadlocked with the Lakers for second place in the Pacific Division and are a team that no one wants to face in the playoffs.

The Kings have become the new NBA darlings _ in fact the ONLY NBA darlings in a long, long time. They are fresh, new, fun-to-watch _ all qualities the NBA has been sadly lacking in recent years.

They are also something that is almost a foreign concept these days: a team.