Kings set to stay in Sacramento after NBA committee unanimously rejects relocation

The Sacra­men­to Kings are going to stay in Sactown.

In a short state­ment issued a lit­tle bit ago, the Nation­al Bas­ket­ball Asso­ci­a­tion revealed that its Relo­ca­tion Com­mit­tee has unan­i­mous­ly vot­ed to rec­om­mend rejec­tion of the Kings’ appli­ca­tion to move to Seattle.

(The Kings are cur­rent­ly owned by the Mal­oofs, who struck an agree­ment to sell the team to a group led by Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer back in January).

The NBA’s full Board of Gov­er­nors (con­sist­ing of the league’s exist­ing own­ers) will meet on May 13th to con­sid­er the mat­ter. The board is expect­ed to adopt the Relo­ca­tion Com­mit­tee’s recommendation.

The rejec­tion of the appli­ca­tion does not mean that the Mal­oofs have to sell to the own­er­ship group orga­nized by Sacra­men­to May­or Kevin Johnson.

How­ev­er, if they want to sell the fran­chise and cash out, they don’t appear to have any oth­er options at this point.

The deci­sion is a defeat for the Mal­oofs (who tried to sell the team to an own­er­ship group that want­ed to move it away out of spite) and for Chris Hansen, whose ambi­tion col­lid­ed with the deter­mi­na­tion and per­sis­tence of the denizens of Sacra­men­to, led by May­or Kevin John­son, him­self a for­mer NBA player.

John­son laud­ed the rec­om­men­da­tion with a series of tweets con­grat­u­lat­ing Sacra­men­to and applaud­ing the enthu­si­asm of fans in Seattle:

That’s what I’m talk­ing about SACRAMENTO!!!!! WE DID IT!!!!!

— Kevin John­son (@KJ_MayorJohnson) April 29, 2013

I’ve nev­er been proud­er of this city. I thank the own­er­ship group, city lead­ers, but most of all the BEST FANS IN THE NBA!!!

— Kevin John­son (@KJ_MayorJohnson) April 29, 2013

I want to take my hat off to Seat­tle. You’re a great city,had a great pro­pos­al, unbe­liev­able fans & no doubt deserve a team in the future.

— Kevin John­son (@KJ_MayorJohnson) April 29, 2013

5:00PM @fire­stonepub­lic! Be there!

— Kevin John­son (@KJ_MayorJohnson) April 29, 2013

Kings fans react­ed on Sac­town Roy­al­ty, a lead­ing Sacra­men­to Kings fan blog, with jubi­la­tion and con­tempt for the Mal­oofs. (And that might be an understatement).

“The sec­ond I saw the news go up on Twit­ter, I start­ed bawl­ing all over my com­put­er,” one fan wrote. “A glo­ri­ous moment and I’d just like to wave as the Mal­oofs walk away and con­tem­plate how they failed at fail­ing a city.”

“If any­thing, in the end, I thank Hansen for tak­ing the Mal­oofs out of our lives,” said anoth­er, con­tem­plat­ing the vic­to­ry. “In real­i­ty, with­out him, we wouldn’t be where we are today, feel­ing the way we do today.”

A few self-pro­fessed Son­ics fans joined in the cel­e­bra­tion as well.

“I couldn’t be more thrilled for Sacra­men­to Kings fans,” a fan styling him or her self as Uni­ver­sal­Gu­ru wrote. “You are a tes­ta­ment to true fan­dom and an exam­ple of what every fan­base should strive to achieve.”

“I hope that Kings fans will sup­port Seat­tle in their effort to rejoin the NBA (hope­ful­ly through expan­sion),” Uni­ver­sal­Gu­ru added.

“Con­grat­u­la­tions are not enough to describe how you must feel. I know, because it’s the antithe­sis of what we went through in 2008. I know that I’ll be root­ing for you dur­ing the 2013–2014 season.”

That last com­ment sums up our sentiments.

We at NPI would like to see men’s pro­fes­sion­al bas­ket­ball return to Seat­tle, but only through an expan­sion fran­chise. That’s why we’re very glad that Sacra­men­to has suc­ceed­ed in its efforts to keep the Kings. All of our oth­er pro teams (Mariners, Storm, Sounders, Sea­hawks) tru­ly can be called home­town teams, because they start­ed play in Seat­tle and have always belonged to Seattle.

Had Chris Hansen suc­ceed­ed in his efforts to take Sacra­men­to’s team and bring it here, it would not have meant the return of the Super­Son­ics. It would have meant the trans­for­ma­tion of the Sacra­men­to Kings into the Seat­tle Kings. It would have meant that Seat­tle would have stolen anoth­er city’s team, just as the Son­ics were tak­en from Seat­tle five years ago by Clay Ben­nett and his henchmen.

The NBA would now be wise to award Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer an expan­sion fran­chise. In Hansen and Ballmer and the Nord­stroms, the league has an enthu­si­as­tic own­er­ship group who are pas­sion­ate about bring­ing the NBA back to Seat­tle and have forged a part­ner­ship with Seat­tle May­or Mike McGinn and King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Con­stan­tine to make it happen.

McGinn and Con­stan­tine both depict­ed their resolve and enthu­si­asm as unchanged despite the NBA’s rec­om­men­da­tion against the relocation.

“I’m proud of how Son­ics fans have ral­lied togeth­er to help Seat­tle get a team,” McGinn said. “We’re going to stay focused on our job: mak­ing sure Seat­tle remains in a posi­tion to get a team when the oppor­tu­ni­ty presents itself.”

Con­stan­tine agreed.

“I’m dis­ap­point­ed, but unde­terred in our quest to bring NBA bas­ket­ball back to the Pacif­ic North­west. Today’s deci­sion does­n’t mean this effort is over. From what I saw at the pre­sen­ta­tion in New York, Chris Hansen and his team have made the supe­ri­or offer and the best pure busi­ness case for the NBA to return to Seattle.”

“We have a doc­u­ment­ed fan and busi­ness base ready to step for­ward when the time comes. We are patient, but deter­mined. I look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing our work with the Hansen group to return NBA bas­ket­ball to the major media mar­ket and loy­al fans of Seat­tle, King Coun­ty, and Wash­ing­ton State.”