Rumors and updates have been trickling out of Sacramento all week, the latest being that the ever evolving local ownership group has notified the NBA that they will match Chris Hansen's offer for the Kings. We'll see. But it sure does look like NBA commissioner David Stern is bending over backwards to keep the Kings in Sacramento.

That's the exact opposite of what happened here a few years back when Stern all but conspired with Clay Bennett to steal the Sonics away to Oklahoma City. Part of the reason Initiative 91 passed by such a large margin was that voters like me were sick of feeling extorted. And while it didn't feel good to lose the team, I sure was proud to live in the city that finally stood up to the NBA.

That's something for NBA owners to consider when they decide whether to approve the sale of the Kings to Hansen and the move of the team to Seattle: Our feelings are still bruised and our patience is limited.

The NBA has never before rejected the sale of a team to qualified owners. Apply different rules to Seattle's bid for the Kings, and folks here will understand the unprecedented decision as the dis it is.

To be clear: Without public and political support—and most importantly, a team to prop this support up—the Sodo arena deal could still die. Seriously. NBA owners shouldn't fool themselves that we'll wait forever. If they want a franchise in Seattle—with the bigger TV revenues that would bring—they need to either show us the same respect they showed Oklahoma City, and approve this deal, or they better quickly turnaround and offer us an expansion franchise. Because the longer we sit around without a team, the more opportunity there will be for our process-driven political system to undermine the Sodo arena deal.

A lot of politicians stuck their necks out to make this happen. A lot of taxpayers like me, who vehemently opposed the previous arena offers, put our knee-jerk opposition to public financing aside in order to embrace the relatively fair deal offered by Hansen. But a lot can happen between now and the time the SEPA review is completed. Like an election. Who knows, perhaps a Mayor Ed Murray won't bother spending the political capital necessary to see his predecessor's biggest accomplishment through to completion?

If the NBA doesn't want to be in the Seattle market, that's up to them. But if they think they'll gain anything by toying with our affections, they better think again. We told the league to go fuck itself once, and we're perfectly capable of doing it second time.