The following season, the Kings traded starting small forward Corliss Williamson to the Toronto Raptors for shooting guard Doug Christie, a move made to improve the subpar defense. They also drafted Turkish power forward Hedo Türkoğlu, further improving their bench rotation. Stojaković moved into the starting small forward role, where he and Webber proved to complement each other extremely well, and as the Kings continued to improve, their popularity steadily rose, culminating in a February 2001 Sports Illustrated cover story entitled "The Greatest Show on Court" with Williams, Christie, Stojaković, Webber, and Divac gracing the cover. That year, they went 55–27, their best in 40 years. In the playoffs, they won their first series in 20 years, defeating the Phoenix Suns three games to one, before being swept in the second round by the Lakers, who eventually won the NBA Championship.
The following season the Kings traded starting small forward Corliss Williamson to the Toronto Raptors for shooting guard Doug Christie a move made to improve the subpar defense They also drafted Turkish power forward Hedo Türkoğlu further improving their bench rotation Stojaković moved into the starting small forward role where he and Webber proved to complement each other extremely well and as the Kings continued to improve their popularity steadily rose culminating in a February 2001 Sports Illustrated cover story entitled "The Greatest Show on Court" with Williams Christie Stojaković Webber and Divac gracing the cover That year they went 55–27 their best in 40 years In the playoffs they won their first series in 20 years defeating the Phoenix Suns three games to one before being swept in the second round by the Lakers who eventually won the NBA Championship