We in Seattle have our Plan A. Folks in Sacramento have their Plan A. Both plans get a lot of press, rumors, comments, but, nobody wants to talk about what happened less than a year ago. Remember, the Maloof family walked away from the arena plan in Sacramento. At the time it looked crazy, stupid, but. . . they are about to pocket $30 million dollars if their sale is denied by the NBA.
There is a remote chance that if they are faced with not being able to maximize their profit by selling to Chris Hansen, by the NBA insisting that the team is sold locally, they could choose to keep the team. They could then pocket the $30 million from Hansen, and explore all local options. They could, close your eyes Kings fans, choose to leverage the $30 million and the newly inflated value if their team and remodel Sleep Train Arena.
Say "no" all you like, but they are not obligated to sell to anybody right now except Chris Hansen.
They could run in place for another year, look at a remodel while entertaining bids in order to maintain the franchise's inflated value. They are worth less in a remodeled arena, but that is minimal cash going out.
They could have an open, lengthy, and public bidding process that squeezes out the current million millionaires that are hoping for a different outcome than is clearly in motion right now.
I'll admit that is an extremely tiny risk to Chris Hansen's offer, but I think it is as likely a result of the NBA saying "no" to Hansen as anything Kevin Johnson is working on.
The NBA Board of Governors should at least consider this remote possibility, the Maloof family keeps the team and become "takers" in revenue sharing forever, in a remodeled Sleep Train Arena.
Wooo-fricken-Hoooooo!
But, fear not, none of that is going to happen. Chris Hansen has purchased the Sacramento Kings and will move them to Seattle.
The NBA will not say "no" because of the purchase financing.
The NBA will not say "no" because of the arena situation in Seattle.
The NBA will not say "no" because of the viability of the Seattle market.
The NBA will not say "no" to Chris Hansen, Steve Ballmer, Erik Nordstrom, and Peter Nordstrom.
If they say "no" then they burn Seattle for a second time, and Chris Hansen does all the right things and gets burned for $30 million dollars.
The NBA will not say "no".