David Stern says the Sacramento arena deal is over.
So what's next? A lame duck year in the current space until the team is sold? The Maloofs will be hemorraghing money this entire season. Who in their right mind would give money to these guys now? They've utterly ruined their relationship with their fanbase, their city's leadership, and it doesn't appear that they did too well with the league office, either. Their days as NBA owners have to be numbered. The league can't force them to sell, but I don't think they can afford to own that team for much longer.
However we've seen that strange things can happen in this league. I still can't believe they got Tom Benson to buy the Hornets. Maybe his ownership tenure will last longer than Robert Johnson's.