Of course, when the Virginia Beach bid for the Sacramento Kings fell apart, it was time for everyone in positions of power to react. I'll let you guess how the Maloofs and their spokesman Eric Rose responded. (Much like my wall responded when I just asked it for a traffic report.) The Sacramento Bee arena dream team got something much more interesting from mayor Kevin Johnson.

"I reach out to the Maloofs on a regular basis," he said. "The dialogue is open. We're here, we have an arena deal downtown that is ready to be signed if they want to do it."

He added that he'd renegotiate terms if "they wanted to tweak something that made sense with our core values."

This is something that must be repeated loud and clear as reports of relocation or sale of the team to out-of-town investors pop up: there is a viable deal in Sacramento. The only thing stopped it from becoming reality is that the team's owners cannot afford to do anything but sell. Any other ownership group could make that deal work. The problem in Sacramento is wholly the Maloofs. Period.