Report: Maloof Bros. finalizing deal to sell Sacramento Kings to Seattle investment group
Sacramento Kings owners Phil Maloof, George Maloof, and Gavin Maloof sit court side during the second quarter against the Los Angeles Lakers at Power Balance Pavilion. (Kelley L Cox-USA TODAY Sports)
The Maloofs are finalizing an agreement to sell the Sacramento Kings to the Hansen-Ballmer led Seattle group, sources tell Yahoo! Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) January 9, 2013
The deal will sell the Kings for approximately $500 million, with the Seattle group seeking relocation to Key Arena for the 2013-’14 season.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) January 9, 2013
There it is, Seattle basketball fans, courtesy of NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski.
You had one year with a rookie named Kevin Durant before your beloved Seattle Supersonics were so unjustly taken from you by the NBA and league commissioner David Stern.
Well, if the league itself could not be depended upon to save your franchise the first time around, at least Seattle fans (and the soon-to-be-disgruntled Sacramento fans, for that matter) could always count on the aloof Maloof brothers, the Kings’ ownership triumvirate.
The Maloofs have been complaining to the league for years that their team is not making them any money, so now the brothers are in the final stages of just washing their hands clean of the situation entirely. Granted, the teams they fielded did not generally durm up very much fan support because they were plain old putrid, but we digress.
According to Fansided, the franchise is only a few simple steps from being sold to billionaire investor Chris Hansen, a Seattle native. Should the rumors prove true, Hansen will be flying the team from central California up to the Pacific Northwest. The team will play in the old SuperSonics digs of Key Arena.
However, Hansen has been preparing to either relocate a team or straight up start from scratch with an expansion franchise for the last few years now.
He has already bought a plot of land in the same district as SafeCo Field and Century Link, where the Mariners and Seahawks play, respectively. Further, he has already garnered the proper city ordinances to build a new, state-of-the-art arena there.
There two largest questions remaining are, first, whether or not the Maloof brothers will go through with the sale or pull out at the last minute, further eroding whatever fan base is left out in Sac-town.
Second, will the team be bringing back the old ‘SuperSonics’ names, jerseys, logos and everything else? In a day and age where Nike is producing the most wild apparel, jerseys and helmets for the Oregon football team just a state away, it’d be great to see what they could come up with for the new NBA team’s retro logo and name.
