There's no other way to put it.
Back in February, George Maloof was among the dozen or so celebrating in Orlando at the realization of a decade's worth of work: a deal to build a state-of-the-art arena in downtown Sacramento. George wasn't teary-eyed like brother Gavin or as beaming as Kevin Johnson, but he was there, and he was quoted.
That wasn't even six weeks ago, and now we get this.
I think David Stern is going to toss some ice in George's bath. Sacramento isn't playing this game — the refusal by city officials and the mayor to even acknowledge any possibility of opening this box back up is glorious — and I'm pretty convinced that Stern is in a similar position. George also claims that the other NBA owners have a lot of respect for the Maloofs. They aren't blind. They know that the Maloof empire has peaked, they can smell desperation and something tells me that George and the clan will have trouble convincing enough owners to peel off of Stern's side to support their refusal to acknowledge that they made a deal, a fair deal, a deal that commits Sacramento to building a new arena by 2015 using some of the most creative financing pro sports has ever seen.
This thing is not getting negotiated again. Either Stern tells the Maloofs to (ahem) pony up or GTFO, or the owners let the Maloofs kill the deal. I don't see a whole lot of middle path here.
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