The first five months of this year were among the most grueling in Sacramento Kings history. The team appeared to be on the way north to Seattle, the second major relocation attempt by the Maloofs in three years. No arena deal was in sight and Seattle's record franchise valuation left many believing there was no way Sacramento could put together a competitive counter-offer.

But we did, in large part due to the "herculean" (as David Stern described them) efforts of Mayor Kevin Johnson.

Now with the saga over, the Bee was able to interview several people involved in the process in order to create a clearer picture on how the team was able to stay. The whole article is incredibly well done, and I would like to give a big shout-out to the Bee's team of Ryan Lillis, Dale Kasler and Tony Bizjak for the amazing work they've done these past few years while covering this story. We're lucky to have them.

On to the highlights of the article.

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After the NBA brokered arena deal fell apart in April of 2012, the team was kind of stuck in purgatory with an unsure future. There were negotiations with Virginia Beach, and the day after those talks fell apart, reports started hitting the internet that the Maloofs had reached an agreement with Seattle to sell the team for $525 million.

At the state of the City at the end of February, we heard about two investors: Ron Burkle and Mark Mastrov. According to the Bee, Mastrov had spoken with George Maloof that previous summer about possibly buying the team. But Mastrov's biggest involvement was probably his connection to Vivek Ranadivé, who was involved in this process a lot earlier than when we heard about him.

Part of the battle was to change the national narrative. Mayor Johnson flew out to Houston for the All-Star game to lobby other owners.

This is where the Playing to Win tour came in. Carmichael Dave and City Hall teamed up for the RV tour to show the country that Sacramento wasn't out of the game just yet. This was in combination with the recent reveal of Burkle and Mastrov as the city's investor group.

But very soon after Mastrov/Burkle sent in their counter-offer to the Maloofs and the NBA, we heard from David Stern at a Warriors game that Sacramento's offer was not worth consideration. There were a lot of reports about just how much Sacramento underpaid, with Seattle sources claiming it was upwards of $100+ million. The truth was a little more mundane:

This spurred Vivek to finally join the group, knowing that he could be the difference between success and failure.

Vivek also called Mayor Johnson the night the Sacramento City Council approved the latest term sheet for a Downtown Plaza arena to make him a promise.

The next big step was the meeting in New York with the NBA. Seattle and the Maloofs were set to give their own presentation, and went first. This worked out to Sacramento's advantage.

Soon after the relocation committee unanimously recommended that the team not move to Seattle. Seattle's response was to raise their bid, but despite the thinking from some national media sources that the increase in money could help sway the owners to vote against the recommendation, it didn't have much pull in the end.

But even with a strong probability that the Seattle bid would be rejected and the Kings would stay in Sacramento, there was still the Maloof conundrum: would they sell the team to Sacramento's group?

The Kings stayed, and will continue to stay for at least 35 more years.

I highly recommend reading the article in its entirety.