The next major step in determining the future of the Kings is slated for Wednesday, when competing bidders for the team will make their presentations before a dozen NBA owners. There's sure to be plenty of news in the next 48 hours as we wait for that, and we'll round up today's latest right here:
- Sactown Royalty's Tom Ziller identifies the owners who'll be present at the meeting, which is a joint session of the league's Relocation and Finance committees, and speculates on which of them might be leaning toward either side.
- TNT's David Aldridge, in his Morning Tip column for NBA.com, provides plenty of detail about the meeting, which is in advance of a pair of votes the Board of Governors will take on April 18th. The first ballot will be on whether to approve the deal in place to sell the team to the Seattle group headed by Chris Hansen. Approval of that measure requires a three-fourths majority, meaning eight "no" votes would nix the sale. If that passes, the next vote is on whether to OK the franchise's move to Seattle. That would require a simple majority. Conceivably, that means the Kings could stay in Sacramento but wind up being owned by Hansen's group, though Aldridge doesn't address what would happen in that case.
- Aldridge hears from sources who give him conflicting word on whether the owners are leaning toward the Seattle group or the Vivek Ranadive-led Sacramento bidders.
- Ranadive would have to sell his minority share of the Warriors before assuming control of the Kings, and it's unlikely he'll have unloaded his stake in Golden State by April 18th, Aldridge writes. But the league is likely to give him sufficient time to do so if his group wins control of the Kings, and Aldridge hears that Ranadive likely already had a deal in place to unload his Warriors stake before he got involved with the Kings effort.