It's no coincidence. They even hinted that this would be the case eventually. I remember in the 2nd or 3rd year as owners here one of them said that if you want your business to succeed you have to plan to lose money the first 5 years, that you've got to incur certain expenses to get your name out there and set yourself up to be viable in the long run. So for those first 5 years the Maloofs went all out, made sure they were seen anytime the Kings were doing something. They told everyone about the Maloof Family Touch (or whatever the line was) about how "customers come first". And that was true in those years, if you don't put the fans first in the first 5, then who's going to buy the tickets, jerseys and cable subscriptions?
That was the building phase of their business. They signed as many players as needed and promoted the line of "customer first" and said all the right things to make sure you felt good. Think about what businesses they were in before buying the Kings and then think about the similarities in how those operations are run and how the Kings are being run right now. Those 5 years of establishing the business are up, the Maloofs are focused on the profits now. They've got others things to do (business-wise) besides show up at regular season games before the All-Star break just to be seen and shake hands with the fans. That's why you saw the Maloofs at center court back in 2000, jumping out of their seats when J-Will would make a highlight reel pass. That's why they were more than happy to give Webber, Christie and Bibby new contracts that may have been a little excessive and it's why you don't see them at as many games now and why they'd rather sign Anthony Peeler for about $700,000 than Jim Jackson for $1.2 million.
