The Maloof family reached an agreement over the weekend to sell the Kings to the Seattle investment group led by Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer, a deal confirmed yesterday by all involved parties. However, even with the agreement in place, the sale is far from finalized. Here are Tuesday's rumors related to Sacramento, Seattle, and the future of the Kings, with any new updates added to the top of the page throughout the day:
- Ron Burkle and Mark Mastrov, the "heavy hitters" among the five investors rumored to be interested in heading up a bid for the Kings, are considering teaming up, USA Today's Sam Amick reports.
Earlier updates:
- The NBA board of governors meeting, in which Sacramento's group is expected to make its formal pitch to keep the Kings in town, is scheduled for April 18th and 19th, tweets Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com.
- Johnson has already added a 20th local investor willing to pledge $1MM to the group of 19 he unveiled today, reports Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee (Twitter link).
- Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson confirmed last night that an announcement is coming this afternoon regarding efforts to put together a local ownership bid, tweets Bryan May of News10 in Sacramento.
- Sports-law expert Michael McCann tells the Sacramento Bee that he doesn't think the Kings' potential move to Seattle is a slam-dunk, but "the odds are highly in favor of the move."
- California politician Darrell Steinberg has sent a letter to the California Department of General Services outlining his concerns about Ballmer's involvement in the purchase and relocation of the Kings, as Sam Amick of USA Today details.
- While Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported yesterday that the Seattle group would target Spurs GM R.C. Buford to run the team's front office, a source tells Mike Monroe of the San Antonio Express-News that Buford isn't going anywhere. TNT's David Aldridge also hears that Buford has no interest in leaving San Antonio (Twitter link).