Kings fans rooting for Bibby or Peja?

Nine years later. Nine long years later. A few months from now, it will be a decade since the Kings choked and then swallowed their entry pass to the NBA Finals.

Mike Bibby, 33, is in the championship series. Finally. Fittingly. Belatedly. After being traded and waived, told yet again that he was too old, too slow and too small, he took his diminishing talents to South Beach and squeezed into the Miami Heat's starting lineup.

Normally, Kings fans would be celebrating the fact that one of their own is going where the local team belonged in 2002. But there are unique complications with this typical Kings sentiment; namely, the presence of Bibby's current teammate LeBron James and of his former teammate Peja Stojakovic, a reserve with the Dallas Mavericks.

Bibby or Peja. Peja or Bibby. One of them will win a ring. But which one? And for those already conflicted by the tough choice between two popular former Kings, how deeply rooted is the disdain for LeBron and his prematurely preening Heat?

Pretty deeply rooted, even on the left coast. Leaving Cleveland was sad for Cavs fans, but sorry, folks, completely understandable. The organization had years to build a dynasty around the game's best player. That's on them. But then there was LeBron's ESPN debacle, the party before there was any reason to party, the bump-and-grind with classy Erik Spoelstra, and you can see where this is going.

"Ah, I just hope I get a ring before Peja does," Bibby said Saturday when asked about all the drama, evading the issues and punctuating his remarks with his throaty, one-syllable laugh. "I just want to win. When I saw him awhile ago and asked him, 'So, how many teams have you played for since the Kings?' I made fun of him. I told him I had him beat because this is only my third team. He laughed. We talked a bit, caught up on stuff."