Has Kevin Johnson lost his court vision?
A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be. – Wayne Gretzky.
Hockey great Wayne Gretzky knew that anticipation was the key to success in his game. Small guards in pro basketball know their longevity in the league depends on reading the court and knowing how plays will develop and where players will be.
I imagine 6-foot-1 Kevin Johnson, who spent 13 years in the NBA, must have been a master at rapidly anticipating what was going to unfold and taking advantage of his smarts. He averaged 9.1 assists per game over his career in addition to scoring 17.9 points a game. He was a three-time NBA All-Star. He stood tall in a game of giants.
Given this stellar background, I have to wonder why Johnson, who as mayor of Sacramento likes to jet around the country and play with the big boys, failed to see what was coming from Seattle. How is it possible that Johnson is a day late and millions of dollars short in trying to counter a Seattle group’s offer to buy the Kings?
Johnson apparently couldn’t think big after he failed to get the Maloofs to embrace a deal for a downtown arena. He couldn’t see that the Maloofs, despite their denials, would indeed sell the team if the right offer came their way.
Instead of preparing for such an eventuality by assembling his band of local developers and recruiting outside billionaires, Johnson nursed his wounds and told the Maloofs to give him a call sometime. Meanwhile, the big boys in a major league city up north got their game together and made their slam-dunk pitch.
Now, we have the spectacle of Sacramento’s mayor desperately seeking a financial rescue from billionaires who must wonder about his ability to play in the big leagues. Johnson has lost the initiative and any meaningful negotiating position he might have had by being first in the door.
If the Maloofs really do want to keep the Kings in Sacramento, they can wave a $525 million offer in Johnson’s face and push him to raid the public treasury for far more than the $255 million he planned to give away earlier this year.
Perhaps the mayor should take up over-40 basketball and display his diminished vision in the proper arena.
I think this article is off base. Yes, the Magoofs are getting a lot of money — not enough to equal what this shallow gene pool squandered from their father’s hard work — but I believe at the core this is a spite sale. They did not want to sell to someone who would keep the team in Sacramento, rebuild it, and therefore expose the Magoofs for the pendejos they are; instead they get to thumb their noses at a city that know them for who they are, walk away with a boatload of cash (which they will probably fritter away) and have the team in another venue where their slumlord operation of the team in Sacramento will not be interesting. I wish the Mayor well, but it really doesn’t matter how many whales come in, the Magoofs want to hurt Sacramento. They are weak, insecure men who cannot stand being exposed.
I’ve wondered why Maloofs had such spite for Sac. John, yours is best explanation I’ve heard…
The key players in this arena saga have enough egg on their face to make a good sized omlette. Are the Maloofs selling to the Seattle group out of spite? I can’t say. Did the Maloofs walk away from two arena deals? The Maloofs weren’t happy with those deals but those deals may not have existed because evidence has popped up that the city overstated the progress in both deals. While it is true that the Maloofs have a questionable business acumen and the obviousness that they can’t afford to maintain an NBA team, a lot of the coverage has been one-sided. The so-called “whales” have been looked at as the good guys in this story, “angel” investors who plan to save the Kings. These “angels” have been enabled by a celebrity mayor, a local boy done good, made money in the bright lights of the NBA and now using his celebrity to save Sacramento’s lone major league sports franchise. What is unknown at this time is what these whales are expecting from the city and its taxpayers and what the Mayor is planning to give up to keep the Kings. Keeping the Kings is good but not at any price.
Pretty interesting views to this article. The question is, did the whole city see this coming? Did Mr. Stern see this coming after he washed his hands of the matter? Mr. Johnson as some have stated, fed off the view of the Maloofs not selling the team. Look at the steps 1: started with the lockout, 2: Ron Burkle came forth saying he would buy the team and they said that they were offended, 3: the petition to move to Aneheim, 4: rumors of moving the team to Virginia Beach, 5: the Maloofs decline the arena deal and vow to keep the team in Sacramento. Now the other thing that is bad is the fact that David Stern divested money from the NBA to make sure that everything would be viable to build a new arena downtown. The Maloofs were at all the meetings with the NBA, AEG, and KJ to make the arena work. With the Maloofs backing out of the deal, that is like a slap in the face to Stern and the NBA. So, it’s not about Mr. Johnson being blind because no one saw this coming. This article should be more about how greedy these owners are and how they took advantage of a community who continued to embrace them despite the issues.
Sacramento without the Kings will be the same sport-less hick town where I grew up in the ‘sixties.
“Food appellations, minor league baseball and soccer” – get real….
You hit this right on the head. KJ is late to the game.
Bad article
I also thought that the Maloofs were adament about the team not being for sale, but you’re right, Paul — the powers-that-be here in Sacramento should’ve known better and had buyers and a bid already lined up. It appears, though, that the Maloofs are just immature party boys who got their feelings hurt by Bee columnists, city officials and the fans for calling them out and calling them names. They probably believe that, with their sale to Seattle, they will become heroes in the Pacific Northwest, even though they’re perceived as zeroes in Sacramento … and Las Vegas … and Los Angeles … and New Mexico …
It’s hard to know what goes on in the Maloofs’ minds, Gary, and we probably wouldn’t want to reside there.
Considering he spends every waking moment as a front man for the NBA, trying to keep these loser here at any cost, it is surprising he did not see this coming. Maybe he should spend more time doing what he was elected to do like, reviewing department budgets and staffing levels so he could make the necessary cuts to get the city fiscally solvent once again.
You wrong in your assumption that KJ didn’t see this. All of us working to keep the Kings and get a new arena, knew this would be the likely outcome. The Maloofs just kept negotiations with Hansen secret and while telling any potential buyers for Sacramento that they’d never sell. Remember, Burkle pretty much been a willing buyer since 2011, but kept being rebuffed. There have been other possibilities, too.
However, you can’t submit an offer to somebody who keeps saying don’t bother the team isn’t for sale. Heck the Maloofs didn’t even tell the minority owners what they were doing, even as a courtesy. They found out what the Maloofs were doing the same time the rest of us heard. You are really selling KJ short, if you think he was taken completely by surprise. Maloofs are just ugly scam artists who want to screw over KJ and Sacramento.
Lynne and others: KJ didn’t bother to get serious money, so he couldn’t test how serious the Maloofs were about not selling. When big money came, they sold.
Maybe he just believed that the Maloof’s were serious when they loudly proclaimed multiple times that they weren’t interested in selling the team. After all, they turned back a bid to buy the team from Burkle, who I assume was offering “serious” money.
If I recall correctly, two years ago in New York the name Ron Burkle was mentioned as an interested buyer and one of the Maloof brothers said something along the lines of “we aren’t selling so tell Burkle to mind his own business.” That isn’t the exact quote but it was something like that. You are essentially saying Burkle isn’t real money. A year later an arena plan is presented and the Maloofs agree to it, only to kill it later. They then say they want to make it work in Sacramento, refurb the old arena, whatever. Now they’ve gone ahead and backdoored the city that has supported them for many years without even mentioning to KJ that they were interested in selling as far as we know.
This is a garbage article for a garbage newspaper like the Sac Bee.
this article is trash
Because KJ thought that home court advantage meant something. Perhaps that the Maloofs would call him if there was to be a sale. WRONG! The Maloofs went where the money is, where an arena deal has been approved. And where they can cause the most agitation to screw the Kings fans.
He didn’t see it coming because those lying Maloofs kept saying the team wasn”t for sale…all the while doing backdoor business with Virginia Beach and Seattle!
There won’t be any deal. KJ’s just barkin’ at the wind, and he hasn’t even announced his ‘whales’ yet, despite Das Bee’s continued touting that they exist. Frankly, it appears that KJ is suffering from Manti T’eo disease…
The Maloof’s went to greener pastures and in the process did what is perhaps the greatest favor they could have done for Sacramento — left town with their team in tow, sparing us from the local corporate right welfare queens oinking their way into the public funding trough to eke out yet another arena scam which would surely send the city into bankruptcy…
But more, Sacramento can now focus on what Sacramento does… cultivate its own stuff — its wine and food appellations are world renowned, as I learned two summers ago in France for a wine client… And the River Cats ownership is proposing a Soccer team — much less cost than bassitball, but much more international exposure — without the need for a half billion dollar arena and another half billion bucks for infrastructure — they intend to reuse HUGHES STADIUM, which is currently woefully underutilized… I applaud their efforts to avoid externalizing this fundamental cost to their enterprise…
Btw, thank you for your very good reporting on this Sacramento stuff — I don’t live there any longer and because of my heavy involvement in this issue prior to my departure, your columns and blogs are most welcome… (and very well written!)…
Well glad to see you made it out alive…..you have formed plenty of enemys on Sacbee.com
Both you and this author suffer from a serious case of denial. Denial that this city is ready to develop the old railyards with an entertainment complex, denial that the mayor was ready for the Maloof’s bush league move and most of all denial of Sacramento’s profile. Famous wine and food! Don’t you mean Sonoma, Napa, Clarksburg, Lodi, Amador, Fairplay and El Dorado County for wine? Sacramento is a tasting room, nothing more. Yes we have decent food but not like other metropolitan areas with our population base.
The mayor, the league (NBA) and AIG had a deal in place and the Maloof’s pulled out because paying any money was too much money. They ran an end around to try and sell the team in as much secrecy as possible because of two reasons: the Seattle group had deep pockets, and you get the best bidding war by starting big. KJ, the minority owners and all of Sacramento are being brilliantly played by the Maloof’s, but the real tragedy is our best course of action is to support the mayors efforts to keep the team so we can develop the railyards in economically proven way.
Oh and BTW, we can still get Soccer in Raley’s Field and still have football in an underutilized Hughes… SACRAMENTO IS BIG ENOUGH TO DO IT ALL!
I have been saying this for a while. There were plenty of warning signs that KJ turned a blind eye to.
He should have seen this day coming years ago when the team started to slide and the Maloofs financial plight became known…but he did nothing
He should have seen this coming when the Maloofs walked away from the arena deal…but again he did nothing.
He should have seen this coming when the Maloofs attempted to move the team…but still, nothing.
He should have had a group ready and waiting with the understanding that it may be years before their money was needed but that one day he would call on them to save the Kings. At this point it is too little too late.
Blame Seattle….no, they are crazy for basketball
Blame the Maloofs…no, they are just crazy and we all knew it
So who is left to blame? No one but KJ and the leaders of Sacramento who simply thought that the worst wouldn’t happen.
This is another lame attempt at bashing the mayor for the shortcomings of the erratic decisions by the Magoofs and their failed attempts at developing any business acumen. Its been quite documented that the Mayor has been trying to broker a deal for the Kings for years now, so the argument that he was blindedsided or unaware of the behind-closed-door dealings with Seattle is garbage. Furthermore, this notion that somehow its anyone else’s fault but the Magoofs for the arena deal implosion is just plain ignorant and dishonest. The problem is the Magoofs are shady businessmen.
Atleast try and be fair and balanced when analyzing this situation.
The writing was on the wall back in October when this SI article came out.
http://nba.si.com/2012/10/26/maloofs-sacramento-kings-seattle-david-stern/
KJ should have went into scramble mode back then. It was a bad assumption to make that the team would never be up for sale when the Maloofs were having financial problems. Everyone knew they were strapped for money. An aborted arena deal when they had to pay money should have been the clue.
It’s an interesting question. Maybe Mayor KJ didn’t think the Maloofs would sell after turning away the sainted Ron Burkle and he believed the oft-repeated phrase in the Bee about the Maloofs having no interest in selling. I always thought that that meant the Maloofs say they don’t want to sell but if the right buyer with a lot of money comes along, they would change their mind. I myself don’t want to sell my 12 year old car but if someone threw $20,000 at me (way more than it’s worth), the car and the pink slip are theirs. And the Mayor should have picked that up.
The Mayor also probably believed the oft-repeated misconception that the Maloofs killed last year’s arena deal (which was just a term sheet that outlined the framework for a deal in which the “heavy lifting” wasn’t completed). Thinking that the Maloofs “killed the deal” probably made him reluctant to assemble a group of buyers because he may not want to work with the Maloofs anymore.
But at this time, the Mayor probably sees that he’s got to hit a 3-pointer with little left on the clock to keep the Kings in Sacramento. It’s going to be hard for the NBA to turn away a big, affluent city away with billionaires ready to play. The Mayor probably recognizes this and maybe his court vision isn’t so bad, in the sense, that he’s playing a longer game. This group of 19 plus the so-called whales may be playing a longer game of trying to get an expansion team if the NBA expands or buy another franchise if one becomes available.