NBA Owners Vote To Keep The Kings In Sacramento

The NBA owners voted Wednesday to keep the Kings in Sacramento. (latimes.com)

The plot felt like it was written in Hollywood, made for the big screen, instead of a real-life saga taking place nearly 400 miles north in Sacramento.

A town struggles and worries with uncertainty for more than two years that the "evil" owners of their beloved basketball team are trying to move the team to Seattle. It seemed like the deal was inevitable, before a heroic mayor does everything in his power to keep the team at home. Months later the city gets a huge victory, but the owners still say they will sell to no one but Seattle. Tension built for the climax of the plot, which is a final ruling by the NBA owners to seal the fate.

The saga has concluded and the people of Sacramento can officially exhale their collective held breath and celebrate. The Kings are not moving to Seattle.

The Maloof family, owners of the Kings who have recently treated Sacramento like an ugly step child they were forced to be with, lost their hope in moving the franchise to Seattle with a vote by NBA owner representatives Wednesday in Dallas, according to ESPN. This comes after a unanimous recommendation last month by the league's relocation committee to reject the deal.

A vote of 22-8 kept the Kings in Sacramento after hours of deliberation by the owners group. The Maloofs still own the team as of now, but NBA Commissioner David Stern said in a news conference after the decision that he would expect the Maloof family to sell the Kings to the Sacramento group of investors created by Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson and with the financial backing of billionaire Vivek Ranadive.

Now the work begins for the fans and city of Sacramento to fill seats and buy merchandise to prove to the owners they made the right decision and for the prospective new ownership group to revamp a struggling on-court product. But right now, the city deserves its moment to celebrate. 

Everything worked out in the end for the fearful city, as if it was written in Hollywood and not Northern California.


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