NBA’s Decision on Kings Still Weeks Away

NEW YORK (AP) — NBA Commissioner David Stern says a decision on the future home of the Kings franchise is still at least two weeks away. Stern tells reporters after a meeting of owners considering the team's sale Wednesday that it could be the first week of May, "but it could slide a bit." Stern says the committee will brief the full board of governors during their two-day meetings Thursday and Friday, but that there will be no vote. He says the committee, comprised of 12 owners, has a number of questions regarding to real estate and legal matters. He also says they will likely meet again next week, either in person or via teleconference.

A Seattle group led by hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen has a deal to purchase 65 percent of the franchise from the Maloof family, and Sacramento has put together a group to make a backup offer. NBA officials have refused to say if the second bid matches Seattle's. Stern reiterates that expansion has not been discussed.

Is this the end for the Kings?

The chatter around Sleep Train Pavilion centered on that question Wednesday night. With NBA owners debating whether to approve the franchise's sale and relocation to Seattle, the ever-faithful fans of the Sacramento Kings pushed the uncertainty aside and did what they have done for parts of four different decades during the regular-season finale against the Los Angeles Clippers. They rallied. Maybe for the last time.

Hope rang out in those trademark cowbells. Optimism showed through purple-painted faces and in the jerseys of players past and present worn throughout the expected sellout crowd expected to pack the 17,317-seat arena to capacity. Most touted the game as the "regular-season finale" and not the "finale" as Sacramento mounts a bid to try and keep the team in town