Explaining why the NBA’s relocation committee recommended against moving the Kings to Seattle, one of the league’s most influential owners says Sacramento did everything necessary to keep the team.
Miami Heat owner Micky Arison, in a Twitter exchange with a Seattle fan, suggested the committee’s 7-0 vote amounted to a referendum on Sacramento, not a rejection of Seattle. The private tweets became public Thursday, less than a week before the NBA board of governors is expected to settle the Kings’ situation once and for all.
Arison, a member of the committee, said the April 29 vote boiled down to whether Sacramento has “done all it should to keep the team. The answer is yes.”
He said Seattle never would have lost the SuperSonics to Oklahoma City in 2008 if city officials had responded the way Sacramento’s did to the threatened loss of the Kings.
— Reported by Dale Kasler, Tony Bizjak and Ryan Lillis of the Sacramento Bee
