im reading the comments a bit differently. In my mind he's saying that the Maloofs will contribute substantially, but he doesnt exactly say they will contribute whatever is needed. My thoughts are that maybe the maloofs are gonna say "we're putting in this much, thats a lot of money, and if it isnt enough then we're done talking about it."
Hopefully im wrong
The good news is this. Stern is the middle man between the Maloofs and the NBA. It's his job to make a deal work, but at the same time make sure the city doesn't put more on the backs of his owners than needed. KJ doesn't have much margin and Stern is talking about a gap and staking out turf, which is bad.
However, the good news is that the NBA folks are here looking over the rest of the deal for 3 days. KJ knows what Cohn needs and Stern will listen to what KJ has to say. On this weekend, Stern will still try to trim any fat and make the best deal for his owners, but he'll also know if there isn't any fat and he's simply sending KJ back to redo a deal that will never pass. NBA is basically the last big money in the pot and right now we're showing them why the deal happens with 80 million and doesn't at other numbers.
Of course this team just got done misreading what the players could do, and put a huge black eye on the NBA ... so there is that.
Best case, the NBA reports back to Stern that KJ is right and there isn't any margin and it's a fair deal for the Kings, Sacramento, and the League. At which point it's, "Look, Boys, I got them down to 70 million. This is a better deal for the franchise, the league, and you than moving. Let's work out a way for you to pay that number, because the team isn't moving and if needed the league is going to find an owner that will pay the 70 that the league will front if needed.
Worst case, "Hey KJ. I see your point. We'll go from 50 to 60. I see you are looking at either user fees and county parking to fill the 9 million. You need to do both to close the gap. I'm sure you can get that passed" And then KJ has a few days to try grab more money.