Sacramento is still fighting to keep the Kings

Sam Amick, USA TODAY Sports | USATODAY

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Eight months after Kevin Johnson thought he buried the full-court shot, thought he kept the only professional team in his native Sacramento from leaving for Anaheim last year and earned hometown hero status until the end of time, the most exhausting of games goes on.

It's triple overtime in the Kings' relocation saga, this small market story that seemed to have happy ending when a handshake deal was announced in a hotel hallway in Orlando on Feb. 27, and the former point guard turned Mayor is well aware that he has fallen way behind.

Seattle looms as the greatest threat of all, with a group headed by billionaire Chris Hansen and Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer having already landed city council approval for a $490 million arena for professional basketball and hockey. The Maloof family that owns the Kings, that took it to such great heights during their glory days in the early 2000s and down to the lowest lows of late, has said consistently that they don't want to sell. But the mistrust in the Maloofs runs deep in these parts, and so the tension remains in what has become a most awkward arrangement between a once-beloved team and its city.

"If somebody is going to pay an exorbitant price, and overpay, or do something very similar to what (Anaheim Ducks owner Henry) Samueli was going to do in Anaheim, if Chris Hansen is looking to do something like that, then that may be something that doesn't apply to us," Johnson told USA TODAY Sports. "All things being considered, I would like to believe that (the Maloofs) have a change of heart and are willing to consider selling at a fair price and that they would give us a chance to keep the team here in Sacramento."

What's fair, however, is playing no part here.

It wasn't fair when Seattle lost the SuperSonics to Oklahoma City in 2008, and it wouldn't be fair if that NBA debt were repaid by moving this Kings team that came from Kansas City in 1985 and quickly became one of commissioner David Stern's favorite markets on his basketball map. What's real, however, is the fact that the continued absence of viable options locally makes it all the more likely that the Kings could be on the move.

At this point, the widely held view in NBA circles is that a team will return to Seattle sooner rather than later. Other cities are surely trying to lure the Kings, too, as numerous reports have linked the Maloofs to an arena-effort in Virginia Beach. Which ever way the longest of plotlines turns, this will go down as a fascinating footnote on Stern's legacy.

Stern, who has always cited the relocation of teams as one of his great disappointments and who played a major part in pushing the downtown Sacramento deal that the Maloofs ultimately decided wasn't viable for them, has already announced his retirement date of Feb. 1, 2014.

"I don't know have any current view on where such a team (for Seattle) comes from," Stern, who will be succeeded by deputy commissioner Adam Silver, said at a news conference on Oct. 25. "We think it's a great development in Seattle, and we are excited about it, but there is no current team in play, and that's going to be an issue for the owners to have to consider."

Asked if the league would consider putting an expansion team in Seattle, Stern said, "What I would say is, I wouldn't preclude it. We have something called a Relocation Committee that is going to have on its list of authorities to focus on, consider and report to the Board on whether expansion is recommended or not."

If the Kings are to stay in Sacramento, something has to be done about their venue. Sleep Train Arena as it is now known, is seemingly falling apart before everyone's eyes.

During a recent game vs. Golden State, black banners that were supposed to hide unpaid-for signage above the court came undone and floated down to the court on four separate occasions. The surreal scene, which included Kings coach Keith Smart running onto the floor to clear the court, sparked an obvious chant of "New arena!" from the incredulous crowd.

The jumbotron ads had belonged to the Thunder Valley Casino - one of the many local companies that have backed out sponsorship deals (theirs was the largest of all at $600,000) because of the continuing uncertainty about the team's future in the city. Johnson would later speak for the local masses when reflecting on that crazy night.

"You literally can't make this up," he said.

The purple passion of Kings fans that were once seen as the NBA's best comes and goes in Sacramento these days. A sellout crowd of 17,317 showed up on opening night, only to be followed by a dismal turn out of 10,185 for a recent game vs. Detroit.

The relationship between Johnson and the Maloofs is nothing short of hot and cold, too. Before and after it seemed the arena deal would get done in late February, when Gavin Maloof cried tears of joy in front of the television cameras in Orlando and would later raise hands of triumph with Johnson back in Sacramento, there was no shortage of acrimony between the two parties. Yet Johnson now finds himself in the most precarious of spots because the team - and, thus, some measure of hope - remains.

"If they want to stay, there's still a deal on the table," said Johnson, who left President Barack Obama's campaign trail to attend the strange game against the Warriors. "But they've got to respect the framework that we laid out in Orlando. I don't know where they are at this point. We haven't had any substantive conversations recently."

There's no sign of that deal being revived, though, and people with knowledge of the Maloofs' thinking have said the revenue projections in the proposal were grossly overestimated and would lead to the family losing money consistently in the new building. Meanwhile, Johnson is standing by the deal as if it's the last plank on a shipwrecked Titanic.

"You had a situation where all we did was take the numbers that the NBA provided us, and I feel they know the numbers inside and out," Johnson said. "And those numbers are the numbers that AEG went with. And all the parties agreed on those numbers. In fact, they did as well in Orlando. And for some reason over the next three weeks, things were different for them."