City of Seattle Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Western Notes: Mavs, Kings, Hansen, Blazers

August 25th, 2013 at 12:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

Western Conference teams gave out the two most lucrative contracts by average annual value this summer, but the next four spots belong to players who signed to play in the East. The Thunder, Spurs and Nuggets, the three Western teams with the best records last season, didn't hand out any of the 25 deals on that list. Whether that signals a shift in the balance of power remains to be seen, but in the meantime, here's the latest from the West:

The Mavs' two most expensive offseason additions have known plenty of coaching instability throughout their careers, but the firmly entrenched Rick Carlisle figures to change that for Monta Ellis and Jose Calderon, writes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News.
The Kings announced that they've hired the architectural firm AECOM to design the construction of a new arena in Sacramento, a story that Tony Bizjak of The Sacramento Bee originally reported. Team president Chris Granger said he expects construction to begin about a year from now.
The anti-arena campaign in Sacramento is still free to use the petition signatures that Seattle investor Chris Hansen bankrolled, but Hansen could also wipe those signatures out, a move that would help him engender some much-needed goodwill, The Bee's Marcos Breton argues.
Chris Lucia of Blazer's Edge sizes up the effect that new starting center Robin Lopez and an upgraded bench will have on the Blazers rotation.

Odds & Ends: Kobe, Sixers, Seattle, Hibbert

August 23rd, 2013 at 9:21pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kobe Bryant is celebrating his 35th birthday today, but the passage of time doesn't bode well for his chances to catch Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the top spot on the all-time scoring list. He has 6,671 points to go, notes Marc Stein of ESPN.com, who adds that Abdul-Jabbar, Karl Malone and Robert Parish are the only players to score at least that many points after they turned 35 (Twitter link). Of course, breaking records involves outperforming history anyway, so the numbers seem as unlikely to deter the Black Mamba as most of the defenders he's faced over the years. Here's more from the Association:

Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Inquirer outlines the Sixers' priorities for the rest of the offseason, which likely include a few more front office hires. He also says Jason Richardson will likely miss the entire season and Kwame Brown will probably be waived, but that appears to be speculation on both points.
Brier Dudley of The Seattle Times thinks Steve Ballmer's announcement today that he's retiring as Microsoft CEO is a boost to Seattle's effort to land an NBA team. Dudley also wonders if Ballmer will follow Paul Allen, another tech magnate, as owner of the Blazers (hat tip to Golliver).
USA Basketball executive director Jerry Colangelo would have interest in making Roy Hibbert part of the program, but Hibbert's appearance with Jamaica during a game in 2010 likely precludes the Pacers center from ever joining Team USA. Michael Pointer of the Indianapolis Star provides further explanation.
Ben Golliver of SI.com gives the Thunder a grade of D+ for their offseason moves, but he's high on first-round pick Steven Adams, doesn't think the departure of Kevin Martin will hurt too much, and believes the team could again win 60 games this season.
Doc Rivers hasn't been with the Clippers for long, but the onus is on him to convert the team's potential into accomplishment, as Zach Harper of CBSSports.com examines.

Western Notes: Ginobili, Beasley, Hansen, Blair

August 21st, 2013 at 12:48pm CST by Luke Adams

Let's check out a few Wednesday items from around the Western Conference….

J. Gomez of SBNation's Pounding the Rock passes along and translates an interview Argentinian newspaper La Nación conducted with Manu Ginobili, which includes plenty of questions about retirement. According to Ginobili, frustration with health issues had him considering retirement this year, but once he improved physically, he realized he wanted to keep playing. The 36-year-old signed a new two-year deal with the Spurs last month.
The Suns have yet to publicly reveal their plans for Michael Beasley after the troubled forward's recent arrest, as Bob Young of the Arizona Republic writes. Young rightly points out that if the Suns plan to release Beasley, they have until September 1st to take advantage of the stretch provision, which would allow the team to stretch the cap hit over several seasons.
Chris Hansen's $100K donation to an anti-Kings-arena effort derails his credibility, but doesn't necessarily ruin Seattle's chances of receiving an expansion team in the next few years, says Ailene Voisin of the Sacramento Bee.
Wilson Chandler is looking forward to reuniting with former Knicks teammate Nate Robinson in Denver, as Aaron J. Lopez of Nuggets.com details.
DeJuan Blair is motivated and expects to make a difference in his first year with the Mavericks, according to Bryan Gutierrez of ESPNDallas.com.

Howard-Cooper On Hansen’s Anti-Arena Donation

August 17th, 2013 at 7:39pm CST by Spencer Lund

Seattle venture capital investor, Chris Hansen, who headed the group looking to purchase the Kings and move them to Seattle, was caught donating $100K to the Anti-Kings-Arena group, STOP, which had previously been linked to former Kings owners the Maloofs. Hansen was contrite after the connection surfaced, offering an apology to the people of Sacramento for his underhanded effort to ruin their new arena deal and help facilitate a move to his hometown.

But Scott Howard-Cooper of NBA.com opines that Hansen's back-handed donation hurts Seattle more than it might have hurt Sacramento. Howard-Cooper argues that Hansen owes an apology to the people of Seattle more so than the one he gave Sacramento on Friday.

Seattle still remains a city without a basketball team after Clay Bennett moved the Seattle Supersonics to Oklahoma City in the summer of 2008 ostensibly after the city voted against publicly funding a new stadium. Hansen's actions have drawn the ire of the NBA, and Howard-Cooper says it has created another obstacle in the path of professional basketball's return to rainy Seattle.

Howard-Cooper adds, via Twitter, that Hansen's public scolding is a nice cherry on top for Sacramento since the league approved the sale of the team to a Sacramento-group led by Vivek Ranadive. He wonders why Hansen donated the money when he had to be aware it would eventually be made public (Twitter). But he also cautions, with a tweet, that this sort of corporate sabotage happens all the time when this much money is at stake; it just usually goes unreported.

Western Notes: Pekovic, Wolves, Jackson, Lakers

August 17th, 2013 at 5:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

The difference between unrestricted free agency and restricted free agency can be seen in the divergent plights of the Lakers and Timberwolves this summer. The purple and gold had no say-so when Dwight Howard jumped to the Rockets, while negotiations between the Wolves and Nikola Pekovic dragged on for months, with other suitors seemingly scared off by Minnesota's ability to match offers. Still, the Wolves and Lakers both figure to be among the teams fighting for one of the final playoff spots in the Western Conference, and they're among the teams we focus on in today's look at the West:

Pekovic is unlikely to meet many of the $8MM worth of incentives in his deal with the Wolves, reports Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities (Twitter link). That means that starting next season, those incentives won't count against the cap. As Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune surmised earlier, games played is one of the incentives, and Wolfson says Pek will earn a bonus if he appears in at least 70 games a year.
Pekovic isn't the only Wolves player with durability issues, and president of basketball ops Flip Saunders plans changes to the way the team handles the treatment and prevention of injuries, as Zach Harper of CBSSports.com examines.
Lakers co-owner Jeanie Buss said last week that Phil Jackson, her fiancee, still yearns to coach, but Jackson seemed to disagree Friday in comments he made to his hometown newspaper. "I have no intention of coaching," he told Mark Jones of the Williston Herald. "I am still recovering from multiple surgeries."
Keith Schlosser of Ridiculous Upside examines the Lakers' unusual promotion of Nick Mazzella from public relations coordinator to GM of the team's D-League affiliate.
The strength of someone's relationships is key to doing business in the NBA, and Chris Hansen's funding of an anti-Kings-arena effort shows he doesn't understand not to burn his bridges, SB Nation's Tom Ziller writes.
The Lakers got a D from HoopsWorld's Moke Hamilton, who graded each Western Conference team's offseason, while the Wolves and Kings both wound up with a B+.

Chris Hansen Funded Anti-Kings-Arena Effort

August 16th, 2013 at 7:50pm CST by Luke Adams

7:50pm: Hansen has issued a statement saying that he made a mistake in donating to STOP, and won't contribute further funding to any anti-arena efforts. Hansen added that the decision was his alone, and wasn't made on behalf of his potential Seattle ownership group. Tony Bizjak has the details in a series of tweets.

6:06pm: The FPPC has confirmed that Hansen was behind the donation to STOP, according to Bruski (via Twitter). There's no evidence that the Maloofs had any involvement, according to the FPPC's Gar Winuk (Twitter link via Kasler).

Hansen actually donated $100K to the anti-arena effort, rather than the $80K previously reported, according to Steve Large of CBS Sacramento (Twitter links). The Bee's report has been updated with that $100K figure as well.

5:40pm: A report last week revealed that a law firm which had previously represented the Maloof family had provided funding to an ongoing petition effort against a new Sacramento arena. However, it wasn't the Maloofs who were behind the $80K in funding from the firm of Loeb & Loeb. According to Carmichael Dave of KHTK 1140 (via Twitter) and Tony Bizjak and Dale Kasler of the Sacramento Bee, Seattle investor Chris Hansen was the mystery donor.

According to the Sacramento Bee's report, Hansen made the $80K donation to the anti-arena effort about a month after the NBA elected to keep the Kings franchise in Sacramento rather than sell it to Hansen's Seattle-based group. The donation was made to a group known as STOP (Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork), which has attempted to gather signatures for a petition demanding a public vote on the proposed Sacramento arena.

The reports of Hansen's involvement in the donation come shortly after a lawsuit was filed by California's FPPC (Fair Political Practices Commission) against Loeb & Loeb, demanding to know the identity of the donor. The contributor should have been disclosed last month, but wasn't, according to the Bee report.

The secretive $80K donation to STOP may have hurt the group's efforts as much as it helped, with the Bee noting that two political consultants quit the petition campaign last week, saying they were "taken aback by the secrecy surrounding the donation." Additionally, city officials say that about 1,700 people who initially signed the petition now want to have their names removed. STOP must accumulate 22,000 signatures by December in order to put the issue on Sacramento's ballot for next June.

Aaron Bruski of Pro Basketball Talk (Twitter link) hears from a league source that if the allegations against Hansen turn out to be true, they won't be viewed favorably by the NBA. In his public comments following the league's decision on the Kings, Hansen was contrite about playing the role of a "predator," attempting to relocate another city's team.

Maloof Attorneys Funding Anti-Arena Effort?

August 9th, 2013 at 5:36pm CST by Chuck Myron

The head of a company that organizes grassroots political campaigns claims that the law firm that represented the Maloof family, former owners of the Kings, provided $80K to fund an ongoing petition effort against a new arena in Sacramento, report Ryan Lillis, Tony Bizjak and Dale Kasler of The Sacramento Bee. The league has set deadlines for the Kings and the city to progress toward a new building, with the threat that the NBA could take the club away from the new ownership of Vivek Ranadive and company, and perhaps move the Kings to another city.

Paul Olson, the head of Olson Campaigns, said today in a statement that the firm of Loeb & Loeb funneled the money through a political consultant based in Orange County, California. Loeb & Loeb represented the Maloofs when they were attempting to sell the team earlier this year to Chris Hansen, Steve Ballmer, and other investors who wanted to move the Kings to Seattle.

Olson said his company has severed ties with the petition effort, which is attempting to force a public vote on city funding for the arena project. George Maloof denies any connection between his family and the petition drive.

"I know nothing about it. Zero," he said. "I just called them (Loeb & Loeb), just now. This is the first I heard of it. They said it was for another client."

The California Fair Political Practices commission is investigating the funding of the petition effort, in response to allegations that the funding is not being properly reported to state elections officials. California Secretary of State records show that Loeb & Loeb have reported no expenditures on the signature drive.

Odds & Ends: Bobcats, Expansion, Kings, Brown

July 19th, 2013 at 12:19am CST by Chuck Myron

USA Today's Sam Amick rounds up the news from the Board of Governors meeting today, which featured unanimous approval of Charlotte's name change from Bobcats to Hornets. Commissioner David Stern initially laughed off the idea of the switch, but fan support for the Hornets monicker persuaded him to take the issue seriously, Amick writes. Stern also offered hints that the league could consider expansion to Seattle and Las Vegas in the future, and he said the union's lack of an executive director has hung up the league's plans to implement human growth hormone testing by next season. Amick also passes along the league's rule adjustments, and we've got more from the meeting as we look around the Association this evening:

In May, the league imposed a deadline of 2017 for the opening of a new arena in Sacramento, but Stern indicated today that he's pleased with the progress the Kings and the city are making, as Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee observes.
The Nuggets, Wizards, Grizzlies, Suns and Knicks were all in attendance as Bobby Brown participated in a five-on-five scrimmage Wednesday, reports Adam Zagoria of SNY.tv. The Knicks also saw Brown workout Tuesday, and they're reportedly moving toward a deal.
Eric Gordon tells Shams Charania of RealGM.com that the Pelicans have assured him that he's a part of the team's long-term plans.
Lakers VP Jim Buss said on NBA TV tonight that he strongly believes Kobe Bryant's torn Achilles will be healed in time for him to play in preseason games this fall, notes Arash Markazi of ESPNLosAngeles.
The Bulls may have promised a training camp invitation to Andrew Goudelock as an enticement to get him to play for their summer league team, according to Mike McGraw of the Daily Herald (Twitter link).
Raptors GM Masai Ujiri has maintained flexibility with his underwhelming free agent haul this summer, but his decision to keep the core of the team intact could have negative consequences, as Eric Koreen of the National Post examines.

NBA Imposes Deadline For New Sacramento Arena

May 31st, 2013 at 9:21pm CST by Chuck Myron

The NBA has the right to arrange for sale to another ownership group and move the Kings out of Sacramento if the team isn't playing in a new arena by 2017, Dale Kasler, Tony Bizjak and Ryan Lillis of The Sacramento Bee report. Vivek Ranadive and his partners, who officially assumed control of the team earlier today, have said they can have a new arena in place by 2016, but commissioner David Stern insisted the Ranadive group agree in writing to the deadline based on his misgivings about "very rosy predictions by both Seattle and Sacramento about the ease with which this building could take place."

Ranadive's spokesman said the owners are "absolutely confident" about their ability to deliver the arena on time. The league will force the Kings to meet several other benchmarks in the process of building the arena as well, including the completion of environmental reviews. If the team misses any of these deadlines, the league can engineer the team's move to another city. The group of Seattle investors that was competing to buy the team from the Maloof family agreed to a similar set of deadlines with the league.

The new Kings owners have plans for a $448MM downtown arena. The city will provide $258MM worth of funding, though that contribution could be subject to a public vote if an opposition group's petition drive is successful.

Ranadive and company own 65% of the team, and will soon own 72%, as Kasler reports. Ranadive is purchasing a 7% share that's being held in bankruptcy. Chris Hansen, the leader of the Seattle bidders, has canceled his deal to assume that share. Ranadive's $15MM price for the share is the same amount as Hansen's offer.

Chris Hansen On Kings, Seattle, Next Step

May 28th, 2013 at 7:25pm CST by Zachary Links

Chris Hansen may not have been the big money behind the bid purchase the Kings and move them to Seattle, but he was unquestionably the face of the movement. Hansen has been largely silent since his group was shot down by the NBA Board of Governors but earlier today he gave a lengthy interview to Dave Mahler of KJR Radio. We've got all the highlights courtesy of NBCSports.com's Aaron Bruski with all links going to Twitter..

While there has been speculation about other clubs that Hansen's group could zero in on, he says that they won't be going after another city's team as a "predator" again. "If we'd known that there would have been such strong support to keep the team in SAC, we'd have approached it differently," said Hansen (link). That would seem to imply that the Sonics will wait for an expansion opportunity to come their way, but that may not be anytime soon. Seattle could also wait for a club to already get the OK to move before pursuing them.
Hansen didn't expect this level of backlash when it came to the Kings, saying that there was a belief inside and outside of the NBA that they were going to move (link). Before agreeing to purchase a team next time around, Hansen's group will make sure that they have gained pre-approval to move (link).
David Stern isn't the most popular guy in the Seattle area, but Hansen doesn't believe that the commissioner has anything against the city (link).
The investor says that he has never sued anybody and doesn't plan to start with the NBA.
However, the group would like to recoup the non-refundable $30MM deposit that they gave to the Maloofs. But, again, they won't be suing. (Twitter links).
When the NBA negotiates its next TV contract, Hansen believes that the league will be reminded of how valuable Seattle really is.