Maloofs Give Sacramento Investors Friday Deadline for Kings


According to the Sac Bee, the Maloofs have given investors looking to keep the Kings in Sacramento a Friday deadline to submit a counter-offer: “The Maloof family has given Sacramento an ultimatum: Come up with a solid bid to purchase the Kings by 5 p.m. Friday, or we won’t even entertain your overtures. A source close to those negotiations told The Bee on Wednesday that the Maloofs have given the ultra-wealthy investors seeking to keep the team in Sacramento two more days to submit a written, binding ‘backup’ offer that matches the deal the family has in place to sell the franchise to a group in Seattle. If the Maloofs receive a matching offer by the end of business Friday, they will consider it as a serious backup proposal should the NBA nullify their tentative deal with Seattle, the source said. If the offer doesn’t arrive in time – or falls short of matching the Seattle bid – the Maloofs said they wouldn’t negotiate with the Sacramento group. The source, who was not authorized to speak about the deal, said the NBA a few weeks ago forwarded a ‘statement of interest’ in buying the team to the Maloofs from Sacramento-based investors. NBA Commissioner David Stern later said the dollar amount in that offer was substantially lower than the deal on the table from Seattle. The source described that initial bid as “not even close” to the reported $341 million offer from Seattle. Since that initial offer was made March 1 by East Bay health club financier Mark Mastrov, the Sacramento team has pitched a more lucrative bid to the NBA.”