I'm not going to pretend to know what's going on. On Monday, Ron Burkle exited Team Sacramento in the aspects of team ownership and arena development. He could still be involved in real estate development around the arena — he helped funded JMA Ventures' purchase of Downtown Plaza, and might have some swell ideas about those city properties that are getting turned over to the partnership. This was not remotely expected or anticipated by anyone outside of the core leadership group. Kevin Johnson told the media on Monday that they knew this was an issue; they did a fine job hiding it.

But then the next whale — the Jacobs family, led by Jeff Jacobs — stepped up. From The Bee:

KJ also mentioned a wrinkle in the ownership group coming up soon; I would expect that fuller participation from the Jacobses would be that wrinkle. I suspect we'll hear more about their level of involvement in the days to come.

The one thought that can make the Burkle-Jacobs swap seem like a positive development is the idea that it appeases, in some way, the Maloofs. Lest you think this is a StR comment thread conspiracy theory …

D.A. tweeted that as the news broke. So our half-cocked theories have good company, at least.

Aaron Bruski tweeted some good information on what this all means, particularly …

And of course, in his own fantastic way, Vivek Ranadive responded to the issue … with a photo of the local partners kicking in $1 million each.

Win or lose, I love this guy.