"We felt that staying another year in that arena and not having a clear path to a new arena wasn't fair to us or fair to our fans in Sacramento"
Hey George, I've got an idea. How about you go stuff it?
How in the world you get the idea that the team staying in Sacramento is
not fair to the fans in Sacramento is beyond me. You can go cry to ESPNLA all you want but the facts remain:
1. You desperately wanted to move the team to Anaheim without giving Sacramento fair notice that you would do so - your brothers publicly insisted just 6 months before the news broke that they were not interested in moving the team
2. Kevin Johnson spent less than two weeks drumming up $10M+ in new corporate support that you and your brothers somehow ignored, leading to very strong suspicions that you were sandbagging the team to make a move to Anaheim more necessary
3. You defied the league's wishes in your attempt to relocate the team, not only requesting (and being granted) two extensions to get it right (which you didn't), but openly defying the Commissioner in a conference call after the league recommended you not file, saying "We're moving to Anaheim!" You even sought out advice from anti-trust lawyers on the subject of suing the league.
4. All of these actions caused Commissioner Stern to bring a major-league smackdown on you in a private phone conversation after the league conference call. Stern informed you that you were about to get the horns. Only when the horns looked too sharp did you back off and start the PR spin.
5. As a result of your stupidity, you've now got a team of NBA employees watching over your shoulder every move you make. You don't get to sandbag the team. You don't get to hamper the arena process. You don't get to take one step off the straight-and-narrow path that the NBA is leading you down - a path that the City of Sacramento hopes results in an arena plan within the next year - because there's a Burklebomb sitting right beside you. Your only hope is that the city can't get it done, because if they do, you're stuck in Sacramento FOREVER. Or until you sell, whichever comes first.
So go ahead, try to speak for the fans of Sacramento. Try to tell the world that it was fairer to us that our team leave. Sit there and spit your invective while knowing full well you are one sneeze away from being an ex-NBA owner, and it's your own fault. All the while I'll sit here smiling in a near-irrational schadenfreude while I watch your ship sink. Couldn't have happened to a worthier person. (No, literally. A worthier person would have dealt with the entire situation above-board and with class, unlike you, and they'd never have gotten themselves into the mess you're in. Enjoy.)