Sacramento Kings Moving: Kevin Johnson Optimistic After Meeting with NBA

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According to a report posted on the Sacramento Bee's website, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and state Senate President Darrell Steinberg felt as though their meeting with the NBA Relocation Committee on Thursday in Sacramento went as well as it could have.

The two are now even more optimistic that they will able to keep the Kings in Sacramento.

NBA representatives Clay Bennett and Harvey Benjamin declined to to comment to the Bee, but Johnson and Steinberg thought the meetings went favorably.

Johnson said he presented Bennett and Benjamin with a list of corporate sponsorships totaling $9.2 million, making good on his promise in New York last week that he and others here were drumming up the kind of money the NBA needs to see to keep the team in town. Johnson has yet to make that list public.
"I think the NBA is convinced they can check that off the list," Johnson said at noon after a meeting at the U.S. Bank tower on Capitol Mall.

The recent developments or, at least, Johnson and Steinberg's optimism, make it seem as though the NBA is willing to listen to Sacramento and haven't already started setting up shop in Anaheim.

If nothing else, it's lit a fire under the you-know-whats of Kings fans.

"Here We Build," one of the most vocal leaders of the movement to keep the Kings in Sacramento, has urged the entire city to wear purple during the NBA's visit to show the NBA how much the city wants to keep the team. They are posting user-submitted photos all day of fans donning purple, see them here.

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