Kings Moving to Seattle?

[Vegas]

As the NBA owners were officially notified tonight, an agreement has been reached between the Maloofs and Chris Hansen to sell the Kings to Hansen so he can move them to Seattle and rename them the Sonics.

espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/8864092/sacramento-kings-owners-reach-agreement-seattle-group-buy-team-sources-say

The deal just needs NBA approval and Kevin Johnson is being allowed to present a counteroffer from possible new local Sacramento owners for the NBA to consider.

[Vegas]

One more obstacle to the return of the Sonics was removed yesterday when a judge dismissed a lawsuit against the new arena plan. The lawsuit was filed by Seattle longshoremen claiming the arena location would hurt the nearby maritime industry.

Kevin Johnson's counteroffer still has not materialized.

The relocation committee votes in April. With the way the binding agreement is structured/conducted- terms such as "binding agreement" and a non refundable down payment 0f $millions already made, I think if the NBA votes against the sale and move the Seattle ownership then sues and possibly gets an expansion team- that's exactly what happened when the Seattle Pilots left to become the Milwaukee Brewers and MLB settled the lawsuit by giving Seattle an expansion franchise which became the Mariners.

IMO that actually would not be a bad outcome as then both Sacramento (although it still needs to figure out its arena situation) could keep its team and the Sonics could return- but it would unfortunately mean both DeMarcus Cousins and Isiah Thomas (who played college basketball in Seattle at the University of Washington) would not be Sonics.

[Crimson Cross]

I'd like the Kings to remain in Sacramento and Seattle gets a expansion franchise, but we'll have to wait and see...

[TTX]

I really question if they want to add another expansion team especially with the problems Charlotte has had.