The morning after and other news, rumors, etc.

Guys I found it LOL http://blog.seattlepi.com/sonics/20...-no-acceptable-deal-possible-with-sacramento/

“There is no acceptable deal possible” with the Sacramento group, a Maloof family spokesperson told Reuters, “and no serious desire by the Sacramento group to arrive at one. It has become too onerous for us to continue spending time and resources on a process that cannot succeed.”

They are quoting the reuters article that got its statement (a statement made to the NBA in a letter) from april 19th

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
At this point, it's actually in our favor to just sit back and watch Hansen and others self-destruct. There's a very good reason Silver and Stern mentioned BALLMER but said nothing about Hansen.
 

HndsmCelt

Hall of Famer
Mike McCann is suggesting that while the Sea antics will have no impact on sale, they may be aggressively pressuring the NBA for expansion.
Michael McCann ‏@McCannSportsLaw 37m

@VictorForLife Hard for Hansen to get vote to go from 0-7 to 16-14; I'd say odds under 5%. He needs to make best sales pitch of his life!
Michael McCann ‏@McCannSportsLaw 27m

@Softykjr Both. I think H/B plan is 1) beat odds & win vote; 2) if 1 fails, make overwhleming case that NBA better off with 31st team in SEA

Michael McCann ‏@McCannSportsLaw 19m

@Softykjr I think anything short of suing (or threatening to sue) NBA to make case for expansion wins points w/NBA & BOG. Aggressive wins.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
I think McCann is wrong. Aggression at this point is not going to impress the NBA. They're tired of anything remotely resembling hostility or aggression at this point. Seattle could play nice and stand a good chance of getting an expansion team IMHO. All Hansen is doing right now is showing himself to be incapable of being a team player, of not wanting to respect the wishes of the group, etc.

Hansen made his sales pitch. It was an excellent pitch, unfortunately for him it wasn't about selling to Seattle. It was about RELOCATING a team to Seattle from a viable city whose franchise was mismanaged by its current ownership.
 

Capt. Factorial

trifolium contra tempestatem subrigere certum est
Staff member
I think McCann is wrong. Aggression at this point is not going to impress the NBA. They're tired of anything remotely resembling hostility or aggression at this point. Seattle could play nice and stand a good chance of getting an expansion team IMHO. All Hansen is doing right now is showing himself to be incapable of being a team player, of not wanting to respect the wishes of the group, etc.

Hansen made his sales pitch. It was an excellent pitch, unfortunately for him it wasn't about selling to Seattle. It was about RELOCATING a team to Seattle from a viable city whose franchise was mismanaged by its current ownership.
Exactly.

Hansen should be playing for expansion right now, and for NOTHING ELSE. He should be calling the BOG and asking whether if he backs out of the deal gracefully they will "make him whole" and offer an expansion team given the great market he's told them about. Ask for expansion in 2014 - hey maybe the NBA doesn't offer it until 2016, but if so - TAKE IT. Be gracious. Do what you have to do, play the game right, get on the BOG's good side.

From my vantage point, Hansen is taking Seattle's chances of getting any team at all down in a blaze, and it's not even a blaze of glory. It's sad, really.
 

Glenn

Hall of Famer
I haven't read the links and probably won't as I think I know what I need to know. The major mistake made by Seattle fans and Hansen is that they don't understand that the NBA has the final say. I suspect in the agreement any owner has with the NBA, they sign away what they might otherwise (in the hedge fund world) think is fair. This is like an exclusive gated community or a country club where people need money AND character. The community or country club has the final say.

This attempt to say that the Maloofs cannot deal with Sacramento, anyone in Sacramento, is laughable on its face. Does anyone believe that any representative of Sacramento has been nasty. KJ has been a gentleman. Burkle is quiet. Ranadive has been a gentleman. Point being, when the NBA hears that the Maloofs can't deal with Sacramento, it is obvious that it is the Maloof's fault. Any unbiased person given the info of what has happened over the last couple years would know that.

If the Maloofs cannot deal with Sacramento, maybe it IS time for the NBA to cut them a nice check and buy the team, reselling it to Ranadive et. al. The NBA might even be willing to take a few million dollars loss just to shed themselves of a huge headache. The inability is because of George and not anyone from Sacramento.

OK now I'll read.
 

Glenn

Hall of Famer
Hansen purchase would keep Kings in Sac for now plus help finance new downtown arena!?

http://www.kcra.com/news/report-han.../format/rsss_2.0/item/0/-/x4uwc8/-/index.html
I have said it before and will say it again: where is Hansen going to build the arena he plans to fund? The NBA will not allow him to become an owner of the Kings unless he has a viable plan to build an arena. Will Burkle et. al. sell their land they have acquired or will the City sell? You can't just plunk down an arena wherever you wish just because you want to build one. Would he honestly build an arena in Sacramento and then abandon it in a move to Seattle and build another arena in Seattle. Pure and utter BS.

Just as the Maloofs say they can't be forced to sell to someone they don't want, Hansen can't force Burkle or the City to sell him land.
 
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rainmaker

Hall of Famer
At this point, it's actually in our favor to just sit back and watch Hansen and others self-destruct. There's a very good reason Silver and Stern mentioned BALLMER but said nothing about Hansen.
Hansen looks more and more like a Maloof relative by the day. I can see why they get along so well and it's quite surprising this guy appears to have not learned a thing from previous Maloof mistakes and what its done to their reputation. He's literally taking a great situation for Sea, which is lining them up to be the first option next time a team is available(Bucks, Pistons, Bobcats, Hawks?) and crapping all over it and ruining all the goodwill he has gained.
 

Glenn

Hall of Famer
For ****s sake, if ONLY a vote of 7-0 stopped the move to Seattle, doesn't anyone see the possibility that one more vote would stop the sale to Hansen? Logic is slipping away. There were 5 other people on the conference call. Certainly one of them agreed with the relocation committee and would see the vote as a package deal of sorts so that the 8 votes necessary to stop the sale (not the relocation - two separate votes) were on that conference call and only courtesy would require a vote of the 29-30 owners.

Calm down, folks.
 
Exactly.

Hansen should be playing for expansion right now, and for NOTHING ELSE. He should be calling the BOG and asking whether if he backs out of the deal gracefully they will "make him whole" and offer an expansion team given the great market he's told them about. Ask for expansion in 2014 - hey maybe the NBA doesn't offer it until 2016, but if so - TAKE IT. Be gracious. Do what you have to do, play the game right, get on the BOG's good side.

From my vantage point, Hansen is taking Seattle's chances of getting any team at all down in a blaze, and it's not even a blaze of glory. It's sad, really.

This is what I worry about. From all I've read, and heard from Mitch Levy on Seattle radio who directly spoke to Ballmer after the decision is that Ballmer has no confidence expansion will be an option.. the NBA doesn't want it... with that being the case I worry that these guys will go all out to attempt to stretch this and make it ugly as they can
 
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HndsmCelt

Hall of Famer
I think McCann is wrong. Aggression at this point is not going to impress the NBA. They're tired of anything remotely resembling hostility or aggression at this point. Seattle could play nice and stand a good chance of getting an expansion team IMHO. All Hansen is doing right now is showing himself to be incapable of being a team player, of not wanting to respect the wishes of the group, etc.

Hansen made his sales pitch. It was an excellent pitch, unfortunately for him it wasn't about selling to Seattle. It was about RELOCATING a team to Seattle from a viable city whose franchise was mismanaged by its current ownership.
Could be, just depends on what he has or has not been told unofficially or officially about expansion. I can see a possibility that if the league has remained mum on expansion, so he sees a speech to the entire BOG in May as last opportunity to push Seattle as a home for expansion.
 
This is what I worry about. From all I've read, and heard from Mitch Levy on Seattle radio who directly spoke to Ballmer after the decision is that Ballmer has no confidence expansion will be an option.. the NBA doesn't want it... with that being the case I worry that these guys will go all out to attempt to stretch this and make it ugly as they can
Next up Milwaukee ripe for the picking with no arena so far to keep their Bucks.
 
I have said it before and will say it again: where is Hansen going to build the arena he plans to fund? The NBA will not allow him to become an owner of the Kings unless he has a viable plan to build an arena. Will Burkle et. al. sell their land they have acquired or will the City sell? You can't just plunk down an arena wherever you wish just because you want to build one. Would he honestly build an arena in Sacramento and then abandon it in a move to Seattle and build another arena in Seattle. Pure and utter BS.

Just as the Maloofs say they can't be forced to sell to someone they don't want, Hansen can't force Burkle or the City to sell him land.
Not to mention the reason why the committee denied relocation is because Sac had a viable arena plan ready. If they approve a sale to Hansen, everything would have to be redone from scratch because he won't accept the current arena deal for obvious reasons.
 

Glenn

Hall of Famer
Next up Milwaukee ripe for the picking with no arena so far to keep their Bucks.
Kohl doesn't have to sell to Hansen. Isn't that the principle that the Maloofs are saying in that they don't want to sell to anyone in Sacramento? There is no such thing as a hostile takeover in the NBA and if Hansen continues to think that way, he will be on the outside looking in. Milwaukee is far more similar to Sacramento than people understand. They have no other pro teams and they have no major college sports program. Granted, Madison is somewhat nearby and so is Chicago but they have nothing they can call their own.
 
Kohl doesn't have to sell to Hansen. Isn't that the principle that the Maloofs are saying in that they don't want to sell to anyone in Sacramento? There is no such thing as a hostile takeover in the NBA and if Hansen continues to think that way, he will be on the outside looking in. Milwaukee is far more similar to Sacramento than people understand. They have no other pro teams and they have no major college sports program. Granted, Madison is somewhat nearby and so is Chicago but they have nothing they can call their own.

Brewers, Marquette - but yeah, I don't see Milwaukee as an option, unlike us they will probably havr owners who give a damn where the team is located
 
Kohl doesn't have to sell to Hansen. Isn't that the principle that the Maloofs are saying in that they don't want to sell to anyone in Sacramento? There is no such thing as a hostile takeover in the NBA and if Hansen continues to think that way, he will be on the outside looking in. Milwaukee is far more similar to Sacramento than people understand. They have no other pro teams and they have no major college sports program. Granted, Madison is somewhat nearby and so is Chicago but they have nothing they can call their own.


What about the Brewers?
 
Milwaukee is far more similar to Sacramento than people understand. They have no other pro teams and they have no major college sports program.

Milwaukee also has the Brewers.

I don't think anyone has brought this up recently. The Maloofs still owe the NBA a substantial amount of money. It was speculated that part of the high valuation of the team was the inclusion of that debt but I don't believe it was ever confirmed. Is there any chance the NBA uses that debt as leverage in all of this? Something to the effect of play ball with us and maybe we can renegotiate that loan with more favorable terms, or even forgive some of that debt. Or going the other way, don't play ball with us and maybe we'll decide that it's time for us to come calling on that debt.

Of course they couldn't be so blunt about it, but I'm sure Stern could come with a nice lawyerese way to put it.

Just a thought I had.
 

Bricklayer

Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Milwaukee also has the Brewers.

I don't think anyone has brought this up recently. The Maloofs still owe the NBA a substantial amount of money. It was speculated that part of the high valuation of the team was the inclusion of that debt but I don't believe it was ever confirmed. Is there any chance the NBA uses that debt as leverage in all of this? Something to the effect of play ball with us and maybe we can renegotiate that loan with more favorable terms, or even forgive some of that debt. Or going the other way, don't play ball with us and maybe we'll decide that it's time for us to come calling on that debt.

Of course they couldn't be so blunt about it, but I'm sure Stern could come with a nice lawyerese way to put it.

Just a thought I had.
And not at all an unlikely one. Being broke has left the Maloofs beholden to basically every single party involved here, and I am sure they are all trying to use it to their advantage.
 
Any talk of Hansen buying the team despite his relocation attempt getting rejected is just wishful thinking from Seattle's perspective.

The NBA will NOT sell the team to an owner who does NOT have an arena deal in that city and does NOT want to keep the team there long term. NBA wants this over and done with ASAP and quite frankly they are sick and tired of the Sacramento Kings saga of the last few years. They have chosen Sacramento and by doing that, they have chose Ranadive/Mastrov/Jacobs group.

NBA is not stupid, they will not choose to block the relocation but sell the team to Hansen/Ballmer group. Not going to happen! NBA has a history of selling teams to owners that did not put in the highest offer for the team. If the highest sale price was the most important thing in the world, San Jose would already have an NBA team owned by Larry Ellison.

As for the Maloofs not willing to sell to the Sacramento group, they really have no choice. Think about it, the only reason they were able to get a franchise evaluation of over $500M is because of team's perceived "movability"! Hansen would not pay for a team like say Grizzlies that much because they are contractually held to Memphis by a long term lease on the arena.

By denying the relocation of the Kings unanimously, the NBA has sent a very strong message that they very much believe in Sacramento and they will not allow the team to move. What this does is actually reduce the evaluation of the franchise. If the Maloofs say we are NOT selling to Ranadive group and are keeping the team, then their leverage in negotiating a sale price from anyone else drops SIGNIFICANTLY! They cannot afford to run the team any more and they will never again get as good an offer for the team as they currently have on the table.

Maloofs want their money. They would no doubt like to stab Sacramento in the back while they get their money but at the end of the day, that $341M looks far juicier than stabbing Sacramento in the back.

Hansen and Maloofs will push this as far as they can because there is obviously a side deal between them, BUT at the end of the day, NBA is not a bunch of idiots. They can see what is going on and once the relocation is denied, the NBA will give a chance to Hansen to gracefully withdraw from the process. If he refuses, his sale will get rejected because everyone knows what his intentions are. Maloofs will go into a meltdown but the NBA will strong arm them one way or the other and they will get their $341M from Ranadive group and leave us in peace for good!.

Any talk of Maloofs keeping the team or Hansen buying the team and keeping it in Sacramento for the time being is just lunacy. It defies logic and common sense.