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Maloofs Q&A: On the Kings, ticket sales, Monarchs and more

While in Las Vegas recently to attend the NBA Summer League and Team USA tryouts at UNLV, Bee sports columnist Ailene Voisin spent two hours conversing with Kings co-owners Joe and Gavin Maloof at the coffee shop in the Palms. In a free-flowing chat, topics included the state of the franchise, the league's labor outlook, the loss of the WNBA Monarchs and the Kings' roster rebuilding process. Midway into the interview, matriarch Colleen Maloof came downstairs and joined the discussion.

Click to read it.

HMFFL...nothing new in that article that Kings fans don't already know, but it was a good read none the less.

I am glad he had a q/a and I was able to read about it. Honestly that makes me feel a lot better, I had a terrible feeling in my stomach about the kings moving else where....

A few highlights that made me feel a lot better in that q/a:

1. Since you brought up Arco Arena, what's the latest on the arena situation? Your commitment to Sacramento? Because of the arena uncertainty, it's no secret your family routinely is approached by groups attempting to lure franchises to Seattle, Kansas City, Las Vegas, San Diego.

Joe Maloof: We don't want to hear about those people. Who are these people, anyway? I think they just want to get their names in the paper. We want to hear about getting our team better and getting people back in the building. Now, it's a fact of life that cities that don't have NBA teams go after them. There are only 30 franchises; they're jewels. But we're not interested. We have a team and a wonderful community, and we're committed to turning it all around in Sac.

2. Gavin Maloof: It's the reason for our existence, for my existence.

For your existence? Are you serious?

Gavin Maloof: If you take the team from me, you might as well bury me six feet under! I would never sell. I might sell a percentage but would never give up controlling interest. We want to leave the team to our nephews.



3. Joe Maloof: Also, we hired one of the all-time greats, Bill Walton. He can work with DeMarcus, teach him things no one else can teach. The second thing is, Bill's enthusiasm will help the kid. The more involved Bill can be, we're all for it.
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I know that most people with a product they want to sell - will tell you anything you want to hear in order to sell it to you, and maybe its because I am a die hard fan and I want to believe it - but I honestly do believe that they're in sac for the long haul and they really want to win again...

Anyways - I was glad to hear this, especially bill Walton coming in to teach our big-men(I wasn't sure if they were gonna use him for strictly announcing or not)... I used to hate the guy with a passion but now that he is apart of the kings organization I'll just have to embrace him lol - anyways, cannot deny that he was a great player and can teach our big's a thing or two about dominating the paint on both ends... and of course off-court advice to.. I am looking forward to the season, lets start it already !!

DickVitale wrote:3. Joe Maloof: Also, we hired one of the all-time greats, Bill Walton. He can work with DeMarcus, teach him things no one else can teach. The second thing is, Bill's enthusiasm will help the kid. The more involved Bill can be, we're all for it.

This part confused me. Did they hire Bill as a commentator and a bigman coach? Is this teaching going on in his spare time? Also I thought Bill was only going to be involved in around a dozen or so games this season anyway. Something is rotten in Denmark

lol @ gavin saying the kings are the reason for his existence jajaja we really do have one of the best ownerships in the league, and the fact that both brother's awknowledged their past mistakes and their lack of experience in owning a team i'm confident that this time around the same mistakes won't be made. gotta love the maloofs!

No. 1 rule of business: don't fall in love w/ your assets.....Maloofs response: f*ck it jajaja! top-2 pro-team ownership!

on the bill walton addition i like it alot. i like bill's approach to the game and his approach on life. cousins should be able to harnness control of himself on the court w/ walton's help. and you get a guy w/ whom cousins can relate to as bill walton gave his coach headaches in college as well but as a professional was able to put it together (too bad injuries plagued his career and he was never the same).

i personally just can't wait to hear Walton talking about cousins and then hear those magic words as Cousins slams the ball home. "Throw it down big man, Throw it down." The immortal words of bill walton.

I know alot of you guys hated him back in the day, but he's always been one of my favorite announcers.