USA – Former point guard KJ leads the charge to keep Kings in Sacramento

SACRAMENTO (NBA) - Kevin Johnson spent his days in the NBA as one of the league's best points guards with the Phoenix Suns.
 
Now Johnson, a member of Team USA’s gold-medal winning team at the 1994 FIBA World Championship, is the Mayor of Sacramento and he’s showing the same kind of grit and determination in that job that helped him become an NBA All-Star.
 
The Sacramento-born 45-year-old player-turned-politician is leading the city in their fight to keep the Kings in the city, with a possible to move to Anaheim to play at the Honda Center on the cards for the team owned by brothers Joe and Gavin Maloof.
 
The Maloofs have to file a relocation application to the league’s owners by Monday.
 
Johnson, after watching the Kings play the Lakers in their last game of the 2010-11 campaign on Wednesday, travelled to New York to meet with NBA owners and said: "We felt very strongly that the Sacramento Kings were worth fighting for.
 
"And if anybody thinks that we're going to sit on our hands and roll over and just let somebody leave without putting up a good fight, they'd be gravely mistaken.”
 
Kings fans made their desires known after the team’s 116-108 overtime defeat at home to the Lakers on Wednesday.
 
Many stayed in their seats after the final buzzer and some become emotional.
 
A handful of Kings players, including Dominican Republic international Francisco Garcia, returned to the court from the locker room.
 
Garcia took a microphone and addressed the crowd, saying: "No matter what happens, this is always going to be our home.”
 
The main issue for the Kings’ owners is the outdated Power Balance Pavilion (formerly known as the Arco Arena).
 
Johnson said on Thursday that Sacramento is committed to building a new entertainment complex,  whether the Kings remained to play in it or not.
 
While there is talk of a new ownership group, the Maloofs have declared they will not sell the team.
 
Johnson said that if the Maloofs did go, the city could bring in another team that was looking to relocate.
 
"So for anybody that has concern, even in a down market, a down economy, that we as a community can't step up to a higher level in the 2011-12 season, they would be mistaken and we have to demonstrate that," Johnson said before addressing the NBA owners.
 
Fan support has never been a problem for Sacramento.
 
Games were sold out there in 19 of the 26 years the team played in the city.
 
The Charlotte Hornets used to lead the NBA in attendance, though, yet watched their team be relocated to New Orleans when the city’s voters balked at building a new stadium.
 
Although the city was given an expansion team, the Bobcats, the wounds of the Hornets’ exit have not healed and the hunger for NBA basketball in Charlotte is not what it once was.
 
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