Maloof brothers' greed won't let Hornets be kings for the day

Among the many crimes the Maloof brothers have committed against the NBA, the city of Sacramento and its fans lately, is its theft on Friday of one of the NBA’s happier off-the-court moments.

The wreckage of the deal that was supposed to keep the Kings from leaving town, which became public Friday, blotted out all the sunshine created by the sale of the New Orleans Hornets, taking that franchise out of league receivership after 16 contentious and controversy-drenched months.


The Hornets were free. Tom Benson, owner of the Saints, became the city’s hero once again. George Shinn, the crook who brought the Hornets there from Charlotte then dumped them in the league’s lap, was pushed further into the fans’ repressed memories. The NBA commissioner no longer will be able to veto the team’s deals. New Orleans’ basketball faithful could exhale.

And then, along came another bunch of crooks, the Maloofs, to ruin everything.

The Maloof brothers, Joe and Gavin, used to be the league’s ray of sunshine, its breath of fresh air, pumping life and a new attitude into a sleepy town and its only pro franchise. Amazing, isn’t it, that just a decade ago, Sacramento was just … this … close to being the center of the NBA universe, with the Kings up 3-2 on the Shaq-Kobe-Phil Lakers in the Western Conference finals, one win away from a certain walkover to an NBA championship that likely would have registered about an 8.0 on the sports Richter scale.

The Maloofs created that. It peaked in June 2002. Now, they are bringing it crashing down, by their own greed, dishonesty, double-talk and double-crossing.

It got out on Friday, while the NBA and Benson were sealing the deal on the Hornets, that the Maloofs were reneging on the handshake deal for a new Sacramento arena, agreed to after marathon negotiations in Orlando in late February that went on right through the start of the All-Star Game. Gavin Maloof even came out of that meeting in tears of joy and emotion.

The city—including mayor and former NBA All-Star Kevin Johnson—and the NBA thought things were on track. The Maloofs said Friday that they are not. Worse, they suggested that the better plan would be to just fix up their current arena—the one that they have insisted for years is so inadequate that it either has to be replaced or the team be moved.

This was the doomsday pronouncement from Johnson late Friday after an emergency meeting with the team owners, according to the Sacramento Bee:

“I wish I had better news. (The Maloofs) are now saying they don’t want to do the deal, which essentially means they don’t want to be in Sacramento.”

Technically, that’s not news. The Maloofs have been idling in the city’s driveway for years, waiting for a reason to floor it somewhere—such as Anaheim, where they tried to move a year ago before everybody dropped what they were doing to get them to stay.

There is little room to crush David Stern on this one. His coziness with his owners/bosses is well-documented (as former Seattle SuperSonics fans would like to forget), but on this he had fought hard to keep the Kings in the town that by any measure has treated them … well, like Kings.

“I think that there’s nothing further to be done,’’ he said Friday, adding that realistically, as of now, nobody can commit to the Kings being in town beyond next season.

Nor is Johnson the villain. He’s treading dangerous political waters in the capital of the state in the middle of a catastrophic budget crisis, which doesn’t really need to be throwing public money at a couple of rich speculators looking for a handout. Johnson is sticking his, and others’, necks out. Stern is sticking his out.

The Maloofs appear not to give a damn. By the strictest definition, it’s their team, and as most selfish people in their position do, they figure they can do whatever they want with it.

They mismanaged themselves right out of control of their own pet Vegas hotel project, the Palms, wasted all the goodwill of the Kings’ successful years, and are now the mortal enemies of the very fans that embraced them in the glory days.

“Sacramento deserves a partner who will honor their commitment,’’ Johnson said. “Sacramento deserves a partner who wants to work in good faith, and I think that Sacramento deserves better than we’ve got to this point.’’

This time, the NBA deserves better, too. In fact, Tom Benson, part of the league family less than 24 hours, deserves a better partner.

At least he deserved a day of good news all to himself.