Kings Staying Put (was Sonics coming back)

[Pyro]

It shouldn't piss me off that the Kings are probably going to keep their team, but it is. All these articles bashing Seattle, bashing Hansen, bashing Ballmer, fuck off.

 

[randymoss1881]

It shouldn't piss me off that the Kings are probably going to keep their team, but it is. All these articles bashing Seattle, bashing Hansen, bashing Ballmer, fuck off.

maybe because those fools are trying to rip a team from a great fan base that has and still is proving they deserve a team. And afterthe league votes to keep the team in SAC they keep up the slimy act with the maloof

 

[shoes22]

It shouldn't piss me off that the Kings are probably going to keep their team, but it is. All these articles bashing Seattle, bashing Hansen, bashing Ballmer, fuck off.

Seattle is gonna find a way to get a team within the next decade, even if it isn't the Kings. Just calm down.

One thing's for sure though, no matter how this ends, the Maloofs can't show their faces in Sacramento again. They'll be banished out of town just like Modell was.

 

[Pyro]

maybe because those fools are trying to rip a team from a great fan base that has and still is proving they deserve a team. And afterthe league votes to keep the team in SAC they keep up the slimy act with the maloof

LOL if you think the Seattle group has been the slimy ones, when they have a LEGAL BINDING AGREEMENT WITH THE MALOOFS TO BUY THE TEAM.

 

[RealKingsFan]

LOL if you think the Seattle group has been the slimy ones, when they have a LEGAL BINDING AGREEMENT WITH THE MALOOFS TO BUY THE TEAM.

Unfortunately the way this agreement was forged was slimy. Think of when the Baltimore Colts were ridden off into the night to go to Indianapolis. If it weren't for the Agent's Daughter, we wouldn't have known the Maloofs sold to Hansen and the Sacramento Ownership group may never have had the time to build up there offer to where the NBA voted on them to stay. It was supposed to be quiet and such. Too bad it didn't go Hansen's way.

Also no offer is binding as long as the NBA hasn't voted. Which you don't seem to get. Its binding in the legal sense outside of the NBA, but your dealing with the NBA, so its not binding due to the fact that it is being voted on, and if it fails then the "Binding" offer is null and void.

I'll put it this way. Kyrie Irving is going to be restricted a free agent soon, some teams may offer him a term sheet to sign to their team, techincally if he signs it its "Binding" but the Cavs can match and thus make it "unbinding".

 

[KB]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-b...owner-steve-ballmer-reportedly-224745105.html

Prospective Kings buyer and Seattle owner Steve Ballmer is reportedly frustrating the NBA
By Eric Freeman | Ball Don't Lie – 2 hours 19 minutes ago


Steve Ballmer lectures Ryan Seacrest about a phone (Kevork Djansezian/ Getty).
The fight for the Sacramento Kings is reaching a fever pitch. After the NBA's relocation committee unanimously recommended the Kings stay in Sacramento, the group of Seattle owners led by hedge fund manager Chris Hansen and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer (along with current Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof) has made efforts to ensure that they end up with the franchise. The Seattle group reportedly has a backup deal in place with the Maloofs to gain a minority stake and eventually move the franchise, in case their existing deal is denied when the Board of Governors votes on it Wednesday. (Never mind that Hansen and Ballmer have proposed so many different plans that it's now unclear exactly what the BOG is voting on.) It appears that Hansen and Ballmer are willing to pursue every possible lead in buying the Kings, and it's unclear what could inspire them to give up their quest.

It appears that those efforts may now be rubbing up against the league's typical standards of comportment and professional respect. As reported by Aaron Bruski for ProBasketballTalk, several league officials are getting tired of Ballmer's manner and methods as he attempts to lock down his purchase of the Kings:

But now that Seattle’s advances have been rebuffed by the NBA, sources say it’s Ballmer that has taken on a larger role in decision-making for the Seattle ownership group. The polar opposite of the soft-spoken hedge fund manager in Hansen – Ballmer is known for being loud and outrageous. Vanity Fair ran a seething piece (Microsoft’s Lost Decade) last August detailing a violent incident and more.

Now that Ballmer has taken on a larger role with the Seattle group, league sources tell PBT that the same bravado he has employed with Microsoft is turning heads at the league office – and not in a good way. It’s no secret that Ballmer is a handful — but a well-connected and filthy rich handful that the NBA would love to have in its stable. At least that was the case. According to league sources speaking to PBT under condition of anonymity, the recent power plays made by Seattle and the Maloof family have “started to weigh on the NBA to the point where any Ballmer-led proposal now or in the future could fall on deaf ears if he doesn’t change course.”

When asked to clarify, the source said that should the Seattle group continue to pursue a scorched earth policy with the Sacramento marketplace, they would jeopardize the city’s ability to secure an NBA team down the road should an opportunity present itself. [...]

“He’s on a rampage,” said one source. “He assumed he could backdoor Sacramento with a willing partner in the Maloofs, but he underestimated Sacramento and now he thinks he can twist enough arms around the league to force his way into the association.”

It's worth reading the full report, because Bruski provides several details on exactly how Ballmer is upsetting the league. In short, the idea is that he and his group are attempting to create a bidding war by changing the terms of the sale whenever it suits their interests. There are several problems with that approach, but the specific issue appears to be that Ballmer has more interest in figuring out a way to engineer a sale than in viewing the NBA as a long-term business partner to be worked with on a personal, friendlier way. The prospective Sacramento ownership group, by contrast, is working very closely with the league and has their full support (this is by necessity, obviously, since the Maloofs seem hellbent on selling for as much money as they can get, i.e. to Hansen to Ballmer).

It seems highly likely that Bruski's report is not merely news, but part of an effort on these sources' part to paint Ballmer in a negative light and perhaps shame him into being less forceful. The suggestion that he is jeopardizing Seattle's long-term NBA viability is not a minor one — it's basically a threat. As usual, the personal politics of the sale are playing out in public.

Yet, while there are ulterior motives in leaking this information, that doesn't mean there aren't broader points to be derived from it. The basic idea of this threat to Ballmer is that his actions have long-term consequences, whether that involves the inability of Seattle to get a team or the foiling of his personal attempts to become an NBA owner. The same can be said of the Seattle group's entire plan to get this team, too. While their circumstances allow them to bid exorbitant sums for the Kings, it's typically the case that the sale price of one franchise affect the future valuations of all NBA teams. It's nice to think that the market plays by fully logical rules and can acknowledge that these circumstances are special, but the course of a sale usually proceeds more irrationally (as we're seeing now).

In attempting to build the best offer, Hansen and Ballmer have created several dangerous precedents, some of which may become irrelevant if they are denied. Yet, if we assume that they do eventually get the Kings, it's hard to know how their actions will forge the next path for prospective owners. Will buyers attempt to deal solely with unhappy owners and bend the league as a whole to their desires? Will franchise valuations submit to the logic of financial analysis or the whims of billionaires who really, really want a team? Will that price out local owners in certain markets? There are many ethical questions such as these that deserve to be asked whenever a buyer emerges for a franchise. When we don't ask them and focus on the specifics of a sale instead — i.e. should the league bring this rich person into the fold regardless of his effect on the current system of ownership just because that rich and powerful? — there's a tendency to effect the long-term state of the league in pursuit of a short-term reward. A lack of foresight can create unintended consequences, many of which get sorted out with work stoppages that place the onus of responsibility on the players' union.

This argument is perhaps a little too strong, because the vast majority of new owners enter the NBA with little controversy. Yet, in the case of the Kings, even what the majority assumes to be the morally correct outcome could have a bad effect on the league because of this sale has proceeded. As Hansen and Ballmer added to their offer, the Sacramento group countered some of their key arguments by promising not to accept their full share of revenue sharing money should they fall into that group of franchises. (Hansen, in something of a response, promised that the new Sonics would pay into the revenue sharing fund on a permanent basis.) Put bluntly, this promise is a perversion of the goal of the revenue sharing system, an attempt to make the Kings more attractive to the NBA system by rejecting the rules of that system. Once again, the pursuit of a certain goal can have a drastic impact on the future of the league.

Whether or not Ballmer actually deserves this public shaming of his methods, the fact is that the NBA has made a very good point (inadvertently or not) about the ways in which short-term tactics affect circumstances over time. The personal actions of powerful men often have very public consequences.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/kings-saga-faces-possible-final-233113080--nba.html

Kings saga faces possible final chapter in Dallas
By TIM BOOTH (AP Sports Writer) | The Associated Press – 1 hour 20 minutes ago

SEATTLE (AP) -- Inside the small club on Seattle's Capitol Hill late Monday night, the chant would not be contained by the walls, drifting out onto the street with every urging scream from the performers on stage.

''Super,'' the DJs would shout.

''Sonics,'' was the emphatic reply from the crowd.

After months of waiting and politicking, recommendations and reversals, and a remarkable amount of money being thrown around, fans in Seattle will finally learn Wednesday whether they will cheer on a team with the SuperSonics name again or whether the Kings will remain in Sacramento.

''I think we've been in this game a long time. We've had setbacks and we've had gains and if it goes against us we'll deal with it, but I am confident in our guys: Steve Ballmer, Chris Hansen,'' said Brian Robinson, the former head of ''Save Our Sonics,'' the grassroots fan group that pushed to block the move of the Sonics to Oklahoma City five years ago. ''They are willing to put the resources into making this happen one way or another.''

''May,'' remains the important word as the NBA Board of Governors meets on Wednesday in Dallas to tackle the issue of whether the Kings stay in Sacramento or are allowed to move to Seattle, where they would be rechristened the SuperSonics.

Investor Chris Hansen and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer have had a deal since January to buy a 65 percent controlling interest in the Kings from the Maloof family. Hansen originally offered a total valuation of $525 million, then increased that offer to $550 million after a competing Sacramento group matched his deal. He hoped to move the team to Seattle to replace the original Sonics, who were relocated and renamed the Thunder in 2008.

After months of staying quiet and letting the process play out, the Hansen and Ballmer group went on the offensive following the NBA relocation committee's decision on April 29 to recommend denying the move.

The Hansen and Ballmer group elbowed its way back into the conversation using money and creativity.

It started last Friday when Hansen increased his total valuation of the Kings from $550 million to $625 million. Hansen also announced on his website that he has guaranteed owners that the franchise would pay into the league's revenue-sharing system if it was in Seattle and not collect money as it has in Sacramento.

On Saturday, word leaked of a backup deal with the Maloofs to purchase a minority interest in the Kings with the Maloofs remaining the controlling party. The limited partnership would be a purchase of at least 20 percent of the Maloofs' stake in the franchise at a valuation of $600 million, but the Hansen/Ballmer group would retain a two-year option to purchase majority control.

They were bold and aggressive moves by the Seattle group. And for fans, they were a needed boost.

''If they had folded, we would have folded,'' Robinson said.

All that brings the whirlwind back to Wednesday's meeting in Dallas and likely the last chance to provide clarity. Anyone who says they definitively know what will come out of the meeting is likely just taking educated guesses. The roller coaster both cities have been on emotionally since January has come with stomach-knotting twists and turns that have provided little clarity about what the final answer will be.

Will the Kings stay in Sacramento with an ownership group led by Vivek Ranadive and plans for a new downtown arena?

Will the Maloof family remain majority owners with Hansen and Ballmer as minority investors in a Sacramento team?

Will Hansen and Ballmer be successful in throwing enough money into the pot that owners are swayed to give the Kings a one-way ticket to Seattle?

Or will expansion finally be a plausible solution that could satisfy both markets despite the NBA's stance thus far that expansion won't be discussed until after the league's next television deal is negotiated?

''I'm really excited. I think there is an opportunity for this saga to end,'' Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said before boarding a flight at Sacramento International Airport on Tuesday.

There is just as much apprehension in Seattle, where the criticism of the NBA has quickly risen since the relocation committee's recommendation. Fans already feeling burned by the league after the messy Sonics divorce are having flashbacks.

''If they spurn us again and we're not offered a clear path toward a franchise at some point we have to say, 'Do they want us to be their customers?''' Robinson said. ''I think the NBA needs to recognize that this is a very special moment and probably the opportunity to reclaim this market because of the work a lot of people have done on the ground here.''

On Monday night, those concerns were forgotten for a few hours. Bouncers were forced to turn fans away from the club after capacity was reached and then exceeded. Those fortunate to arrive early and stay inside raised their bottles at every scream of the word ''Sonics,'' and they treated former Seattle great Shawn Kemp like a rock star when he took the stage.

Kemp was the same as the others, keeping hope that Wednesday's result would see a return of the Sonics.

''There's only been a couple of times, a couple of times in this whole ordeal where my spirit has been broken,'' Kemp said. ''But I can promise you this, Mr. Hansen has definitely kept my spirit up.''

 

[Pyro]

I'm done with this thread.

Kings will be playing in Seattle this Fall, and that's my last thought in this thread.

 

[RealKingsFan]

I'm done with this thread.

Kings will be playing in Seattle this Fall, and that's my last thought in this thread.

I hope there is a team playing in Seattle this fall.

 

[randymoss1881]

I'm done with this thread.

Kings will be playing in Seattle this Fall, and that's my last thought in this thread.

hahaha are you willing to put money on that. (donation to rcf)
if i knew personally id bet my car on it

 

[Pyro]

Sonics and Kings fans coming to blows in the lobby of the hotel!

 

[RealKingsFan]

Lol You can tell both sides are joking about it. Mike (The Kings fan) is clearing laughing it up with them. Good stuff. This should never have happened, turning these fans against each other.

 

[RealKingsFan]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>The NBA Board of Governors has voted down the relocation bid to move the Kings to Seattle, @<a href="https://twitter.com/usatodaysports">usatodaysports</a> has learned</p>&mdash; Sam Amick (@sam_amick) <a href="https://twitter.com/sam_amick/status/334789018812309506">May 15, 2013</a></blockquote>
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[RealKingsFan]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>RT @<a href="https://twitter.com/kjrmitch">kjrmitch</a>: Breaking: Final score: 22-8.22 NBA owners say no to relocating Kings while 8 ok the move. <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23nbakings">#nbakings</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search/%23nbaseattle">#nbaseattle</a></p>&mdash; Sean Cunningham (@News10Sean) <a href="https://twitter.com/News10Sean/status/334792578555838466">May 15, 2013</a></blockquote>
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[Pyro]

They got it wrong. Again.

What a travesty this league is. Might start watching the WWE. At least they make no bones about it being scripted.

 

[RealKingsFan]

Stern reports NBA will try to facilitate deal between Ranadive and the Maloofs within 24-48 Hours.

http://www.news10.net/

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>NBA to try and facilitate agreement between @<a href="https://twitter.com/vivek">vivek</a> and Maloofs in next 24-48 according to David Stern.</p>&mdash; Carmichael Dave (@CarmichaelDave) <a href="https://twitter.com/CarmichaelDave/status/334795382515191808">May 15, 2013</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Stern: owners voted on the increased H/B offer of $625million</p>&mdash; Bryan May (@BMayNews10) <a href="https://twitter.com/BMayNews10/status/334797324490510337">May 15, 2013</a></blockquote>
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