Phil Jackson Wants Kings to Stay in Sacramento

Jackson, who has a history of antagonizing the Kings and its fanbase, doesn’t want the team to get relocated. From the LA Times: “The Sacramento Kings have until Tuesday to file a request with the NBA to move to Anaheim, though there’s already some public resistance from a fairly important neighbor. The state capital seems like a perfect place for the Kings to reside, according to Phil Jackson. ‘I think we’d like to see them stay there,’ the Lakers coach said Wednesday. Naturally, neither the Lakers nor the Clippers want to split their lucrative corner of the NBA pie with another Southern California tenant. Both Los Angeles teams would get a small share of a relocation fee paid by the Kings’ owners, but it wouldn’t be as financially sound as maintaining an absolute grip on sales of pro basketball tickets and merchandise in the region. Even though Jackson said Los Angeles was not a ‘saturated town’ because it still lacked pro football, he said three NBA teams would be ‘a little bit overdoing it.’ The Kings have struggled financially in recent seasons and have been unable to secure funding for a new arena. Jackson wasn’t completely unsympathetic to their plight. ‘You don’t want to see a franchise go under simply because they can’t support themselves,’ he said.”