Kings President of Basketball Operations, Geoff Petrie
“I have to tell you that trading Chris was probably one of the most difficult and emotional decisions that I’ve been involved in professionally. He has been an instrumental part of ushering in an era of basketball here in Sacramento that most of the world at that time did not believe could happen. In that regard, I don’t think myself or anyone in this organization could thank him enough. Those of you who have followed the team over the years that Chris has been here knows that we have been to hell and back. There are a lot of different areas that comprise professional sports. We’ve had fun times, we’ve had times where we suffered—but we’ve had an incredible group here. They’ve given us a tremendous amount of enjoyment and memorable memories. I can’t thank him enough, I wish him the best—but the memories will remain the property of the Sacramento Kings.”

“I think the trade gives us some flexibility and versatility going forward with our roster and we get some additional depth. And Corliss, Kenny, and Brian are quality players who can certainly change the direction for us at this point. I think going forward that it will be beneficial for us."

Did you talk to Chris?
“I did, and I have to tell you that he was incredibly professional on what was obviously a very emotional issue.”

Was it a good conversation?
“We’ve always had, and not that we talked a lot, but on the big things we’ve always had a candid relationship, and that’s how it was.”

“We obviously see a lot more of Chris and the other players on a daily basis than you do and are involved in different aspects of their life. Besides the two hours they spend on the floor, there are a lot of things wrapped in there and it makes it tough. We wish him the very best and I’m sure he is going to do well there.”

When did the trade come about?
“It really all evolved over the last 48 hours, a little bit yesterday and on through today. Most of it really came into a doable thing today.”

“I think we can still have a very good basketball team the remainder of the season. It is going to be a challenge with the amount of change we’ve made now, even going back to the acquisition of Cuttino, because I’m trying to blend in even more new faces with 29 games to go. I have a lot of confidence in our remaining nucleus and hopefully Peja will be back to normal by the end of the week—with Mike, Brad, and Cuttino and Darius coming off the bench, we still have a lot of firepower. I think we’re going to be fine offensively. Regardless of what anybody says, you or me, it’s what shows up on the court. So we’ll see what happens.”

“You can never tell a player that you won’t trade them with no uncertain exceptions. You just can’t do that. You can tell a player that you don’t want to trade them or planning on trading them, but you can’t say that you would never say I wouldn’t trade you. History has proved that it hasn’t panned out very much. It depends on individual situations.”

“With key players, they’re always that sense of sadness when you make a deal. That’s just part of being a human being”

“He was amazing, that’s all I can say.”