The owners of the Sacramento Kings have agreed to a backup deal to sell 20 percent of the team to the Seattle ownership group.
The current owners of the Sacramento Kings have told their fellow NBA owners that they will not sell the team if a deal with a Seattle group to sell and relocate the team is not approved.
Instead, the Maloof family has reached agreement on a "backup" plan to sell 20 percent of the team to the Seattle group led by Chris Hansen and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, a league source confirmed to The Seattle Times.
ESPN.com, which first reported the story, said that Hansen has also offered to pay a $115 million relocation fee that would give each of the 29 other owners roughly $4 million apiece. The group that moved the Sonics to Oklahoma City in 2008 paid just $30 million.
The revelations were yet another twist in the four-month tug-of-war between Seattle and Sacramento over the Kings, and further proof of Hansen's pledge last month to consider all options in his quest to buy the team and move it north.
"It would seem the Maloofs are daring the NBA to reject the relocation and sale by saying they won't cooperate with the Sacramento group," Michael McCann, an on-air legal analyst for NBA-TV, told The Seattle Times. "This seems to be a strategy to encourage owners to vote in favor of Seattle and Hansen."
The Maloofs and the Hansen group did not have a comment on the report.
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........... and to clarify once more ............. This is Chris Hansen
I know how desperately you want to envision the ownership group being led by this guy:
..... You'll have to keep dreaming!
The current owners of the Sacramento Kings have told their fellow NBA owners that they will not sell the team if a deal with a Seattle group to sell and relocate the team is not approved.
Instead, the Maloof family has reached agreement on a "backup" plan to sell 20 percent of the team to the Seattle group led by Chris Hansen and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, a league source confirmed to The Seattle Times.
ESPN.com, which first reported the story, said that Hansen has also offered to pay a $115 million relocation fee that would give each of the 29 other owners roughly $4 million apiece. The group that moved the Sonics to Oklahoma City in 2008 paid just $30 million.
The revelations were yet another twist in the four-month tug-of-war between Seattle and Sacramento over the Kings, and further proof of Hansen's pledge last month to consider all options in his quest to buy the team and move it north.
"It would seem the Maloofs are daring the NBA to reject the relocation and sale by saying they won't cooperate with the Sacramento group," Michael McCann, an on-air legal analyst for NBA-TV, told The Seattle Times. "This seems to be a strategy to encourage owners to vote in favor of Seattle and Hansen."
The Maloofs and the Hansen group did not have a comment on the report.
-------------
........... and to clarify once more ............. This is Chris Hansen
I know how desperately you want to envision the ownership group being led by this guy:
..... You'll have to keep dreaming!