ESPN’s Ric Bucher doubts Sacramento will keep Kings
Feb 8, 2012, 6:29 PM | Updated: 6:30 pm
By Pete Treperinas
Special to 710Sports.com
Talk of the Sacramento Kings possibly heading to Seattle has been a hot topic all week, but for the most part, it’s been speculation.
Ric Bucher, an NBA reporter for ESPN, brought some optimism to Seattleites when he joined “The Kevin Calabro Show” Wednesday.
The Kings have a March 1 deadline to find a deal for a new arena, or else they could be in a similar predicament that the Sonics were in prior to their departure. Bucher said he doesn’t think the money is there to build an arena.
“I don’t think there’s anyway, anyhow that they stay in Sacramento,” he said. “I don’t see them being able to meet that deadline.”
When the Maloof brothers, who own the Kings, almost moved the team to Anaheim last year, Sacramento was granted a year to find a new long-term plan for a building. Since then, Bucher says, all Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson has done is buy the Kings time.
Should the Kings fail to find a solution in Sacramento, Bucher thinks Seattle is the NBA’s best option.
“The market and the money are in Seattle in a way that they simply are not in Sacramento in this point,” Bucher said. “I can’t ignore the fact that they simply haven’t been able to get it done and it’s for reasons that have not changed since they’ve been trying to get a new arena.”
In Wednesday’s Warmup video, Jim Moore and Steve Sandmeyer discuss the possibility of the NBA returning to Seattle, specifically focusing on whether or not commissioner David Stern might feel obligated to make it happen given the hit his reputation took when the Sonics left for Oklahoma City.
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