Prologue: check out excellent pieces by Jonathan Santiago on Ron Burkle and Blake Ellington on Mark Mastrov. Our local blog community is awesome.

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Many in Sacramento are becoming much more optimistic about the city's chances to keep the Kings. We learned Thursday that if Sacramento is successful, Mastrov will be the lead in the ownership of the franchise while Burkle will take the lead on the arena. So if all goes according to plan, Mark Mastrov will be the next owner of the Sacramento Kings, the man who pulls the strings, hires the GM, funds the operation and provides the vision for the team.

How might that look? Blake dug into the difference between Mastrov and Maloofs in terms of how they became wealthy: it's a story of entrepreneurship vs. inheritance. But what about the philosophies? This story on Mastrov from Success magazine offers a glimpse:

Curiosity, trend-watching, a wide net — that's all much different than the Maloofs, who operate with a closed circle of trusted folks. The same applies to Geoff Petrie, who has augmented his staff only a couple times over the last decade and a half. (And we saw how long Jason Levien lasted.) If Mastrov hires a GM that thinks like him, the Kings may finally break out of the mire and embrace the New NBA, where data and scouting hold equally important places in the decision-making hierarchy.

As Blake mentioned in his piece, Mastrov's New Evolution Ventures owns Crunch, which has three Sacramento locations. If you're looking for a gym membership, that might be a good way to show your support for Mastrov.