PAPA, the Kings could be staying after all,” our grandson Isaiah Rashid excitedly reported by phone from Sacramento, California yesterday. “Mayor (Kevin) Johnson has formed a group of rich people to block the team from moving to Seattle.”
Isaiah, a lanky 13-year-old junior high school basketeer, stays on top of the news to track the latest step of the National Basketball Association franchise to skip town.
His wish of keeping the Kings around reflects the desire of fans, including thousands of Filipino-Americans in California’s capital, to hold on to their only major professional sports team.
With the impending NBA approval in April for a Kings sale to a Seattle group, a Kings minority owner emerged from the shadows Wednesday. The owner presented what the Sacramento Bee reports as a sketchy “back-up” plan to buy the team should its sale to the high-powered investor bloc fall through. These financiers want to make the Pacific Northwest the new home for the team.
Earlier, Sacramento Mayor Johnson, a former NBA star, also announced that some wealthy individuals are ready to pick up the franchise and build a new Kings arena, just in case. Johnson’s fresh faction includes billionaire grocery magnate Ron Burkle and 24-Hour Fitness founder Mark Mastroy.
Over a year ago when the Maloofs, the family that owns the Kings threatened to fly the coop, Burkle was ready to move the team to Anaheim in Southern California.
Even Filipino business tycoon Manny V. Pangilinan, who covets the Kings in his dreams, crashed the Maloof party. He told Manila reporters he was interested in a stake on the team. The story gained traction after his quick trip to Sacramento.
The Maloofs have made moving the Kings to destinations unknown an annual rite. With the city unable to deliver a new Kings arena it promised, the family, this time with the backing of the NBA, definitely wanted to get out of Dodge.
The family signed a deal several weeks ago with the Seattle group led by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer to sell the Kings for $525 million. The agreement must be ratified by a three-quarters majority vote of the NBA tentatively set for April 18.
Until then, the Maloofs have an exclusive deal with Ballmer’s group that prohibits them from entering any negotiations with anyone else with a counter-offer.
Meanwhile, Senate leader Darrel Steinberg has asked California’s Department of General Services to show how much taxpayer money the state government spends on Microsoft products and services.
Steinberg is troubled by CEO Ballmer’s part to transplant the Kings. He said it was appalling “that a company and a CEO that has enjoyed a prosperous and beneficial working relationship with the State of California and its taxpayers would blatantly engage in activities … clearly and measurably detrimental to our state’s job and revenue base.”
Despite political maneuvering in Sacramento, Ballmer’s group has filed for relocation. NBA Commissioner David Stern told the Los Angeles Times that “appropriate committees have been convened to look over the proposed sale of the Kings and the prospective move.”
MVP’s dream team could soon fade to purple in Sacramento.
It is definitely a flight risk from California, especially the Fil-Am-rich Sacramento-Fairfield-Vallejo market.