Vlade Divac as the Kings' most valuable player over the first half of this season? We can do that. Most days, it doesn't even feel like a stretch.

Geoff Petrie will almost go that far, in fact, and Petrie likes to anoint individual favorites about as much as he likes to hop up on the bar and do the macarena. But the Kings' president understands that, in the confluence of nearly impossible-to-separate factors that got Sacramento off to the searing start that has led to this 33-10 standing, Divac was huge from the beginning.

"Certainly starting like that," Petrie said Wednesday as the Kings prepared to fly to Seattle to face the SuperSonics tonight. "And Mike (Bibby) being new, totally new. And the way we play, he (Divac) is the fulcrum of a lot of what we do offensively."