Arena deal crumbles, Sacramento’s NBA future shaky

NEW YORK (AP) - The Kings‘ future in Sacramento is uncertain again.

A tentative deal for a new arena has fallen apart, leaving open the possibility the team’s owners could again try to move from California’s capital.

“Is the deal dead? As we know it, absolutely,” Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said Friday.

The Maloof family has balked at terms of the agreement reached last month, and though they say they want to remain in Sacramento, Johnson isn’t so sure after meeting with them Friday and hearing their list of concerns he said hadn’t previously been disclosed.

“It just feels like they were coming up with reasons of why not to do the deal,” Johnson said.

So a year after Johnson came to New York to begin his fight to save the team, his city is in jeopardy of losing it all over again.

Admitting he was angry and questioning the Maloofs’ trustworthiness, Johnson praised his city’s efforts but said he doesn’t know what will happen now.

“They are now saying they don’t want to do the deal, which essentially means they don’t want to be in Sacramento, and that’s very, very disappointing,” he said.

The Kings say otherwise.

“We are committed to remaining the Sacramento Kings,” the team said in a statement.

But they stressed _ as did Commissioner David Stern _ that the deal was “always nonbinding,” and the Maloofs always had the right to decide they were no longer comfortable with the terms.

“The negotiations that have occurred surrounding, as Commissioner Stern said repeatedly today during his news conference, a `non-binding framework,’ never resulted in a deal that was good for the City or good for the team,” the Kings said.

It was a stunningly swift and disappointing result for Sacramento officials who thought they were on their way to holding onto the team just weeks ago.

They had met with the Maloofs and league officials during the NBA’s All-Star weekend in Orlando in February, celebrating a tentative deal to fund the estimated $391 million arena that would open for the 2015-16 season in the downtown Sacramento rail yards.

Co-owner Gavin Maloof was in tears then in a joint announcement of the deal, which the Sacramento City Council passed its end of in early March. The deal was brokered by the league _ with the Maloofs’ permission, according to Johnson _ and tentatively agreed to by the Kings.

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