Latest tweets from Carmichael Dave:
Carmichael Dave @CarmichaelDave 7m
So we will be in Vegas Saturday night to watch old friend @urijahfaber fight. We were planning on staying in the RV as we normally do.
Carmichael Dave @CarmichaelDave 6m
We will be a lot more comfortable now, as we have been asked to stay at the Palms hotel as guests of the Maloof family.
Carmichael Dave @CarmichaelDave 6m
George Maloof was kind enough to reach out and offer us rooms as guests of the family during our stay, and we accepted. Class move.
Carmichael Dave @CarmichaelDave 4m
I should add that I have maintained a relationship with the Maloofs for a long time, and have been in contact with George during the trip.
This was simply a nice gesture, and of course we accepted. I wouldn't read to much further into it. I've always said positive>negative.
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I have to be honest and admit that this doesn't sit real well with me. I have mixed feelings. On one hand, the Maloofs want the team to leave and have said they want to move forward and sell the team to Seattle. It kind of bothers me that Dave has been in contact with George Maloof. It also bothers me that Dave has accepted a gratuity from the Maloofs when this whole tour has been about denying the Maloofs what they want most - to sell the team to Seattle.
I don't quite buy into the idea that George is literally vindictive and has a personal vendetta against the city and citizens of Sacramento, that his motive is to cause harm. That's not to say that his actions have not caused pain, they have. But I don't think that has ever been his motive.
Word came out from a minority owner a few weeks back, it may have been Bob Cook, that in truth the Maloofs have been trying or at least open to/hoping to move the Kings to a bigger market for a profit since they bought the team. That's for a profit, not to hurt Sacramento. I see no further actions in the Seattle phase that indicates otherwise. What might be seen as George wanting to hurt Sac, I think is really just him trying to leverage Seattle against Sac, and now, you can see him slightly turning on Seattle now and leveraging Sac back against Seattle. I think in his own mind he's just trying to get the absolute highest sale price possible. And, from a purely cold and calculating, one dimensional point of view, you can't say he hasn't done a good job of that. It seems he will have successfully leveraged Seattle's desire for a team to jack up the price for the Kings 50-100 mil, essentially accomplishing the higher valuation goal, while even avoiding paying a relocation fee. He just happened to make every single Sacramentan, (and soon every Seattle fan) despise him in the process.
I also think he's not unaware of the public hate towards his family. Perhaps he views it as the cost of doing business. In no way do I view Dave's actions as traitorous. In fact I'm glad he's been able to maintain a relationship with "the enemy". The public hate towards the Maloofs has been helpful, actually, for galvanizing the movement. You need to have public enemy number one. But they're really only the enemy for as long as it suits our purpose of getting them out and keeping our team. Aside from that purpose, which Dave has been a huge part of, there is no reason not to try to maintain positivity between them. KJ does the same thing. He'll kill you on the court, but buy you a beer afterwards. It's just good sportsmanship.
