It appears that the NBA could be headed back to Seattle soon.
Yahoo! Sports reported Wednesday that a deal with the Maloof family to sell the Sacramento Kings to a Seattle ownership group led by Chris Hanson and Steve Balmer is close to being finalized.
The sale price reportedly would be approximately $500 million, the largest in NBA history.
The new owners hope to move the Kings to Seattle’s Key Arena for the 2013-’14 season. Plans are to build a new arena that would be ready after several seasons in the existing building.
The Maloofs would maintain a minority share in the team but have no control over the operations of the franchise, Yahoo! reported.
Seattle has been without an NBA team since the Sonics moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. The Seattle franchise will be allowed to reclaim the Sonics nickname.