City of Seattle

Since Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported on Wednesday that the Maloof family was "finalizing an agreement" to sell the Kings to a Seattle-based investment group, plenty of reports have suggested it's premature to say that a deal is on the verge of completion. Still, talks definitely appear to be taking place. Here's the latest on the Kings and a potential move to Seattle:

• Sam Amick of USA Today tweets that Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson does not believe the city's window for keeping the Kings has closed.
• Amick adds that Johnson is rounding up sources of money to put together an offer comparable to the one the Maloofs have on the table from the Seattle group.

Earlier updates:

• Magic Johnson, who was part of Mark Mastrov's bid to buy the Warriors, won't be involved in Mastrov's play for the Kings, according to Scott-Howard Cooper of NBA.com (via Sulia).
• Besides Mastrov, Sleep Train CEO Dale Carlsen may also be interesting in bidding on the Kings to help keep them in Sacramento, tweets Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee.

• Mark Mastrov, who lost out to Joe Lacob and Peter Guber in the bidding for the Warriors, is interested in buying the Kings and keeping them in Sacramento, reports Ken Berger of CBSSports.com. "Definitely, there've been conversations," said Mastrov, the founder of 24-Hour Fitness. "Definitely there's interest in acquiring the team and keeping it in Sacramento."
• Berger hears from sources that Mastrov has made the Maloofs a formal offer, though the CBSSports.com scribe notes that Mastrov, who has a net worth estimated at $350MM, likely wouldn't be able to match the Seattle group dollar for dollar.
• Sam Amick of USA Today reports that Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson has spent much of the last month attempting to identify potential buyers that would keep the Kings in Sacramento. According to Amick, the only publicly-known interested party is Ron Burkle, supermarket magnate and part-owner of the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins. A Sacramento-based is very unlikely to beat the Seattle group in a bidding war, says Amick.
• The Kings aren't commenting on a report that suggests a sale to the Seattle group is a "done deal," according to the Sacramento Bee. The Bee report notes that Richard Benvenuti, a limited partner of the franchise, hasn't been informed of any sale — as we heard earlier this week, minority partners must be told before any agreement is finalized. It was Matt Steinmetz of CSNBayArea.com (via Sulia) that said the deal was "done" with a price tag of $525MM.
• According to Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times, the Maloofs still want to have a say in how the franchise is run, even if they sell it to Chris Hansen's Seattle group. Wojnarowski's initial report indicated that the Maloofs would likely retain a small percentage of the team in any sale, but Woj suggested it wouldn't be enough to allow them a say in how the club is run.
• Condotta's source tells him that a sale decision would go beyond pure dollars and cents for the Maloofs, since being involved in the NBA has been very important to the family.
• Ryan Lillis, Dale Kasler, and Tony Bizjak of the Sacramento Bee hear from a source close to the Maloofs that talks between Kings ownership and the Seattle group are in the "early stages." A formal offer has not yet been made, though the Bee's sources expect that one is forthcoming.
• Sacramento fans and players, including Aaron Brooks, Isaiah Thomas, and Jason Thompson weighed in on the possibility of the Kings leaving town in an Associated Press report (link via USA Today).

Earlier Thursday, Sacramento Kings co-owner George Maloof stated that the reported sale to Chris Hansen's Seattle-based group was not close. Aaron Bruski of NBCSports.com tweets that Wednesday's reports of an imminent sale continue to be premature, citing sources close to the negotiations.

Speaking at a public event on Thursday in Washington, D.C., NBA commissioner David Stern addressed the Kings' situation. Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today tweets that Stern does not plan to get personally involved in the negotiation or potential relocation process, leaving those responsibilities to the NBA's board of governors. Zillgitt adds that Stern believes an ownership group committed to keeping the Kings in Sacramento should be given a fair chance to match the offer made by the Seattle group.

Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com spoke to Kings head coach Keith Smart, who understands that the uncertainty of the team's ownership status could pose a distraction for the players and the coaching staff. However, Smart believes the players will be able to tune out the speculation.

A deal to sell the Kings to a Seattle-based group led by Chris Hansen is "not close," Kings co-owner George Maloof tells Bryan May of ABC News10 in Sacramento (Twitter link). It's the first public comment made by a member of the Maloof family since Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reported yesterday that the two sides were nearing an agreement.

While it's a little good news for Kings fans in Sacramento, it hardly means that a sale won't eventually be finalized, as Sactown Royalty notes. The Sactown Royalty piece points out that George was the Maloof brother at the forefront of relocation talks with Virginia Beach and Anaheim, and helped kill the Sacramento arena deal in the spring of 2012.

Multiple reports besides Wojnarowski's have indicated that Kings ownership is in talks with Hansen's group, but based on those reports and Maloof's comments, it appears that discussions may not come reach a resolution (one way or the other) in the immediate future.

Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports dropped a bombshell yesterday, reporting that the Maloof family was close to selling the Sacramento Kings to a group of Seattle-based investors led by Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer. No agreement has been finalized yet, but Wojnarowski's story and subsequent reports have suggested that the two sides are in discussions. Here are the latest links related to the possible sale of the Kings:

• A trio of Sacramento Bee reporters, Tony Bizjak, Dale Kasler and Ryan Lillis, hear from sources that the Maloofs are indeed engaged in talks with the Seattle investment group. However, no formal offer has been made yet, according to the Bee report. Now that Kings ownership seems willing to explore the idea of selling the team, Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson says he hopes to recruit local bidders in an effort to keep the franchise in Sacramento.
• The Bee's sources described the talks with Hansen's group as "conceptual" and said that reports suggesting a deal was nearly done may be premature. However, if the Seattle group were to present the Maloofs with a "ridiculous" offer, that could change quickly.
• The Maloofs, David Stern, and the NBA owe Sacramento a chance to try to put together a local investment group to keep the Kings, opines Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee.
• If the Kings relocate, then it's the Maloofs, rather than the community, that would deserve the blame, says Marcos Breton of the Sacramento Bee.
• Shaun Powell also calls out the Maloofs in his latest piece for Sports on Earth.
• Kings players are trying to focus on basketball and not get wrapped up in the swirling rumors, writes Matt Kawahara of the Sacramento Bee.

6:02pm: The Seattle group has made significant progress in negotiations and is confident a deal will eventually get done, a person who was briefed on the status of the negotiations told Sam Amick of USA Today.  If the deal is completed, the team would be called the Sonics.

3:12pm: The Kings' minority owners haven't been told about a sale, according to Amick, who says that minority owners must be told before a sale is completed. Additionally, Amick writes that the NBA has issued a memo to the league's owners warning them not to comment on the Kings' situation.

12:41pm: The Maloofs are finalizing an agreement to sell the Sacramento Kings to a Seattle-based group led by Chris Hansen, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. According to Wojnarowski, the Kings are expected to be sold for about $500MM, which would be a new record, topping the Warriors' 2010 sale price of $450MM. The Seattle group is seeking to relocate the team to the KeyArena for the 2013/14 season.

The deadline for NBA teams to file for relocation for the following season is March 1st, so there would be plenty of time to petition the league for a move to Seattle. Wojnarowski indicates that league officials would work diligently to help the franchise move to Seattle if the sale is finalized.

According to Wojnarowski, the Seattle group hopes to play two seasons in the KeyArena, starting in '13/14, before making the transition into the new arena — progress on that proposed arena has been approved so far by Seattle's City Council.

Daina Falk, the daughter of agent David Falk, had tweeted early this morning that the Kings were being sold to Hansen's group, which includes Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, but later deleted the tweet. A Kings official had since denied that there was any truth to the rumor, according to a Sacramento Bee report. While no agreement has been signed yet, a source describes the deal to Wojnarowski as "first and goal at the one."

Wojnarowski's report comes on the heels of news that the city of Virginia Beach and Comcast-Spectator were unable to reach an agreement with the Maloofs that would have proposed to relocate the Kings to Virginia. At the time, Bruce Rader of WAVY-TV noted that Kings ownerships figured to explore other options, while Tom Ziller of SBNation.com speculated that Seattle rumors were about to heat up.

Assuming the deal is finalized and approved by the NBA, the Maloofs are expected to retain an extremely small percentage of the franchise, says Wojnarowski. However, they wouldn't have any real input or say in the team anymore.

The city of Seattle has, of course, been without an NBA franchise since 2008, when the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. If the Kings move to Seattle for the 2013/14 season, it will be a victory in the northwest for commissioner David Stern, who was reportedly "determined" to return the NBA to Seattle before retiring in February of 2014.

Zach Links contributed to this post.