Pretty sweet news this morning from The Bee: according to two interviews and a document review, the reporters believe that the NBA's finance committee, which is a subgroup of the Board of Governors that votes up or down on proposed franchise sales, will vet the anticipated Mastrov/Burkle bid to keep the Kings in Sacramento before Kevin Johnson's April presentation.

Why is this good news? The committee will be considering Sacramento at the same time as it is considering Seattle. The process will be holistic, which is what I argued must happen last week. That gives Sacramento a much stronger chance than if the committees and Board of Governors pursued the options separately. Chris Hansen wanted this to be a by-the-book approval process. It does not appear that will be the case.

There's also this eye-opening passage:

Wow. The relocation committee has to consider how the Maloofs have managed the team (like Lindsay Lohan has managed her career) and will assess the support of the team in Sacramento by fans, telecasters, broadcasters and sponsors. Well, I'll be! Seems like that right there makes a pretty good argument for Sacramento!

This is big.