On the heels of yesterday's announcement that David Stern will be stepping down as NBA commissioner in February 2014, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports has penned a less than flattering retrospective on Stern's "three decades of totalitarian rule."
In addition to looking back on the tenure of the longtime commissioner, Wojnarowski's piece also includes a handful of interesting nuggets related to Sacramento and Seattle. According to the Yahoo! scribe, Stern is "determined" to return the NBA to Seattle in his last 15 months on the job. Wojnarowski also hears that pressure on the Maloofs from the league office to sell the Kings has been "growing."
The city of Seattle's quest to return an NBA franchise to the area has been well documented, with the Seattle City Council and King County Council approving the arena proposal put forth by Chris Hansen earlier this month. Stern said yesterday that he "wouldn't preclude" the possibility of expanding the league beyond 30 teams, but it's more likely that one of the league's current franchises would have to move to give Seattle a chance at a team.
Given their inability to date to secure a new arena, the Kings have long been considered the most logical candidate to relocate to another city. On a teleconference with reporters yesterday, Stern didn't commit too strongly to the team's future in Sacramento, simply encouraging the city to continue supporting the Kings and then hoping for the best.
Will one of David Stern’s last acts as commissioner be to turn the Sacramento Kings into the Seattle Reign?