The Sacramento Kings on the Verge of Being Royally Screwed...

Deja Vu?

Remember what happened in Seattle say...oh 7 years ago? The Sonics were bought buy a group from Oklahoma and were looking for anyway to move the team from Seattle to Oklahoma City.  Professional Basketball Club LLC, the group who bought the Sonics, had told the city of Seattle that they wanted help funding KeyArena.  PBC was asking the government to fund the new stadium that would have cost onwards up to $500 million.  As we all know, the Sonics were left in the dust and the Thunder came bolting into Oklahoma City and the NBA scene.  Left behind were loyal, heart broken, infuriated distraught fans.

Well NBA fans, looks like we could in for act II!  Reports have come out that after much fighting, push and pull, and unlike what may have happened in Seattle, the city of Sacramento did what they could to keep the Sacramento Kings in town...are getting the Royal Flush.  We heard for a few years now, rumblings of the Maloof family trying to get renovations on what used to named ARCO Arena.  I understand that the Maloofs don't want to keep investing money into renovations. In 2006, the bizjournal reported that "Measure Q -- which would have recommended that the proceeds of a tax increase go for an arena -- failed 71.5 percent to 28.5 percent. Measure R, which would have increased the county sales tax by a quarter-cent for 15 years, failed 80.2 percent to 19.8 percent".  A $600 million facility in downtown Sacramento was proposed, which was to be funded by a quarter cent sales tax increase over 15 years and the people rejected the idea.  In some ways up to this point, it seemed as thought the stars were starting to align and we may have another scenario develop like Seattle.

Artist rendition of the new arena in Sacramento

In late February, SportsBusinessDaily.com had reported that the Kings' owners, the city, and the NBA came to a tentative deal on the construction of a 387 million dollar facility in the rail yards in downtown Sacramento. The city would be paying up-front more than 250 million dollars, raised by from leasing city-owned parking lots to a private company. The Maloofs would be contributing only 75 million up-front as well as the money from the sale of the current Power Balance Pavilion. In addition they would pay a 5% surcharge on their ticket sales supposedly generating another 75 million through the span of the deal. Arena operator AEG was to contribute another 60 million up-front for the right to operate the arena. With this agreement, it was expected that the Kings would play in the new arena as early as 2015.  Just over a week later, the city had agreed on the parameters of the deal and it looked like everything was "peaches and cream" in Sac-town.

Well, on Friday, April 13th...yes FRIDAY THE 13TH!  NBA Commissioner David Stern came to the party and ruined it for everybody.  ProBasketballTalk broke down what Stern had to say, and this is what came of his press conference. 

"In my view, it was subject to any party who said didn’t want to do it. It was always non-binding… I think it’s fair for Maloofs to say ' don’t want to do it.'" 

"I am extremely disappointed, on behalf of Maloofs and city of Sacramento, but I think that there’s nothing further to be done," Stern said. "This is a situation that the Maloofs will make judgments on and city will have to make judgments on. I think we’ve done as much as we can do."

Just like Seattle, the fans are at the mercy of the team, but there isn't much they can do

 So the city of Sacramento did what they could to try and work with the Maloofs in giving the family a new stadium, had a proposal all put together, tentatively approved the deal.  It's odd that they would be willing to work with the city up to this point and then decide one day "Nope, we really don't like it now, good yesterday...not so much today".  From the very beginning, the Maloofs really had no intentions of staying there, good owners understand how much a team means to a community and they do what they can to stay in town and be the "town attraction".  Anaheim has been in their vision ever since the Sonics were bought and moved, this was a way for the owners to find leverage and get what they want.  In all this, what's frustrating and disappointing is the leadership up top with David Stern.  He is able to take control of the New Orleans Hornets, run the team, make trades and talk about how important it was to make sure that the team is bought by someone (Saints Owner Tom Benson) to keep the team in town, because of "how much the team meant to the community".  What about the Sonics and Kings?!  These are examples of cities that DO have fans that DO care about there team, regardless of how good or bad their team is, they will still show up.  If community is important enough to the commissioner, he would do what he can to keep or have kept the teams in their town.  At this point, it looks like that the Kings will spend the 2012-2013 season in Sacramento, but after that?  Anaheim?  Downtown Los Angeles?  The Maloofs have Mayflower on speed dial and are ready to move at a moments notice.  Luckily we have heard in the past, owners such as Jerry Buss has come out and voiced their displeasure with another team in the L.A. market.  If it becomes a big enough issue, maybe the whole notion of moving the team will come down to a owners vote and/or approval of the move.  If it comes down to Stern making the ultimate decision, Sac-town will be at the mercy of the Kings and the fans, just like Seattle, will be the ones that lose the most in all of this.

The Hunter....is now the Hunted

There was many things I could talk about, football in L.A., how Calipari is part of the reason why college basketball isn't like it was 10 years ago, etc.  Football fans are going to be on one end or another of the spectrum in terms of whether one believes this is a issue or not.  But how many times does a sore subject such as bounties in sports come around?  The United States of Football has a full audio recording of Greg Williams' speech instructing his men to take out players from the San Francisco 49ers.  Before you read on, please know what was said prior to the game so that what I have to say makes sense.

After hearing what was said, it is bothersome at the least.  Of course the game of football is a violent, malicious and dangerous sport.   You hear of coaches wondering whose injured with the upcoming game and what not, trying to attack or "expose" a injury.  With a sport that is already violent, does there need to be an incentive to hurt other players?  Well, just ask the Rams D.C. Gregg Williams', in his time with the Saints and possibly the Redskins and Bills, he instituted a "pay for play" program.  It was unknown how much he was giving his players, but he was instructing them to "put a extra little mustard" on their hits.  In the recording, we hear of Williams telling his guys to take a shot at Alex Smith while still in a pile, attack wide receiver Kyle Williams and see just how well he recovered from his concussion and intentionally attack Michael Crabtree's ACL.  In all this, what as made this a more important subject to talk about?  It's the word BOUNTY.  If we didn't use the word bounty, and just looked at the actions attacking other players for cash would it be as big of a deal?  Maybe, maybe not.  If we take away the word bounty and look at the situation, I think of it in the lines of being a "extension of the player performance in a contract".  But the definition and negative connotation of the term bounty has also helped made this a bigger story.  

Sure, there is people who think that the game has gone soft, and I too agree.  But does it really matter what you or I think?  Not really, because the game will continue regardless of what we think. The game continues to change as well.  In a time where the NFL has reached out to third parties to help them conduct research on concussions, worry about player safety in terms rule changes and protecting players and former players suing the league for health and psychological problems, the NFL will make an example of the Saints.  And so they did, we recently heard that H.C. Sean Payton and G.M. Mickey Loomis were suspended for the season while assistants and coordinators are suspended indefinitely.  Following this new discovery thanks in part to Sean Pamphilon coming forward to Yahoo! Sports with the story, the NFL should reconsider.  We see Payton out for the year, Williams out "indefinitely" and we haven't heard anything about player suspensions.  With all this, I think that we should see a reduction of Paytons and Loomis' suspension to no more than half the season.  Williams on the other hand should receive WAY more.

Recently, former players have come out and expressed their distraught with Williams' actions.  Warren Sapp of the NFL Network spoke about this situation and had this to say:

"'This is the most heinous, egregious thing in the history of this game'.  'Not for one second would I sit in a room and listen to someone say', 'We're going to take out someone's ACL' without standing up and saying, 'What the hell are you talking about?' " he said. 'The way you play defense isn't about malice. It's about putting you in fourth-and-more than you can handle.'"

Michael Irvin also spoke up and had his own opinion on the situation:

"'Since you were a baby you’ve understood never take out a man’s knees and on this tape he’s talking about taking out an ACL,' Irvin said on NFL Network. 'I almost threw up when I heard it. I pulled back any covers that I may have had for a coach. If he is out of the league forever, it would be only the right thing to do.''

I tend to agree with what Irvin has said, this is a dangerous game, and players will play this way regardless.  But to specifically point out players and target a injury instead of a player is uncalled for in this game!  Irvin is right and I think that the NFL should ban Williams for some time, revisit the situation, see if Gregg Williams has learned from this act and become a better man for it.  Maybe one day he will be able to come back and coach in the NFL, but this kind of act CANNOT be tolerated and the NFL should make an example of the man.