DALLAS (Reuters) - The NBA denied a proposal on Wednesday to move the Sacramento Kings basketball team to Seattle following months of bitter wrangling between investors from Washington state and a group fighting to keep the team in Sacramento.
The decision, announced by NBA Commissioner David Stern, appears to put the kibosh - at least, for now - on a deal to sell the team to the Seattle group that would have valued the Kings at $625 million, a huge amount for an NBA team.
"It's nice to see two great cities so interested in an NBA franchise, but the winner here is Sacramento," Stern told a news conference in Dallas, where team owners who make up the league's board of governors met to decide the team's fate.
The family of George Maloof, which owns a controlling interest in the team, had wanted to sell the franchise to Seattle investors, but faced opposition from Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, himself a former NBA player, who quickly mounted a campaign to keep the team in the California state capital.
Stern, speaking for the league, urged the Maloof family to quickly reach a deal to sell the team to Johnson's group.
"It is my expectation that we will be able to reach a deal with the Maloofs," Stern said.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, George Maloof said he was not opposed to working with the Sacramento group.
(Reporting By Marice Richter in Dallas and Sharon Bernstein in Los Angeles, editing by Cynthia Johnston)
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