4:47pm: The NBA's Board of Governors meeting is ongoing, but Aaron Bruski of NBCSports.com hears from one source that there's "good news for Sacramento" (Twitter link).
10:43am: With the NBA's Board of Governors scheduled to meet today at 1:00pm central time in Dallas to discuss and vote on the future of the Kings, there are plenty of last-minute primers to catch up on, including a pair of pieces from the Sacramento Bee, a story from Chris Daniels of KING5 in Seattle, and a post by Sactown Royalty. As we wait to see what decisions the league's owners make today, we'll round up several of the notable items from these stories:
- The Maloofs continue to dispute an earlier report saying that they'd be unwilling to sell to a Sacramento investment group, but the Kings current owners have been working pretty much exclusively with the Seattle group. The sale to Chris Hansen's group still has a "great shot" to get done, in George Maloof's view.
- The relocation committee's recommendation not to allow the Kings to relocate to Seattle will likely be enough to sway today's vote in that direction, according to one top NBA executive.
- If relocation is denied, the Maloofs still hope the NBA will approve their backup plan with the Seattle group, which would involve selling 20% of the franchise to the Hansen/Steve Ballmer collective. In that scenario, the Maloofs insist they would work in good faith to complete an arena deal in Sacramento.
- Bryan May of KXTV News10 asked George Maloof whether the NBA would approve a 20% sale to the Seattle group if it had already shot down a 65% purchase. Maloof's reply: "I can sell to whoever I want to" (Twitter link).
- "Nothing against the Sacramento group," Maloof said. "But they have a backup offer, and we have a binding agreement with Chris. That is just the way the deal progressed. We have a backup from Vivek [Ranadive], but we're being true to the deal with Chris."
- Responding to a lawsuit that alleges the Sacramento arena plan is illegally using city funds, Sacramento city attorney Jim Sanchez said in a statement that "we are prepared to defend the council decision as necessary and do not believe this lawsuit has merit."