On Wednesday NBA owners put the kibosh on a Seattle group's hopes of moving a team to Seattle. The owners ultimately decided that, at least for now, the Sacramento Kings will stay in Northern California.

The city of Seattle has been without a professional basketball team ever since the SuperSonics moved out of Key Arena in 2008 and located to Oklahoma City (now as the thunder). An investment group led by Chris Hansen had hoped to change that with their bid for the Sacramento Kings.

"I would say it's a victory for Sacramento, not a victory for the NBA," NBA commissioner David Stern said. "I think the mayor has done a great job and Vivek Ranadive did a great job and the City Council of Sacramento did a really wonderful thing as far as expressing on behalf of the region support for this project."

Sacramento's mayor, former NBA All-Star Kevin Johnson, has worked actively to keep the Sacramento Kings in the city. Twice Johnson has fought against the owners of the Kings, the Maloof family, to keep them from moving.

"We believe in Sacramento," Johnson said. "We get a chance to transform our downtown community, something we've wanted to do."

The Maloofs had initially reached an agreement to sell the team at a valuation of $525 million and Hansen even proposed to raise that price to $550 million. On April 29, however, the relocation committee rejected the proposal.

From there Hansen's Seattle group scrambled to prove that they were worthy of the team, eventually raising enough money to raise the Kings' valuation to a total of $625 million. That will still not enough to sway NBA decision-makers.

"It is my expectation that we will be able to make a deal with the Maloofs and the Ranadive group to transfer title in Sacramento," the commissioner said, he also noted that "this was not an anti-Seattle vote, it was a pro-Sacramento vote,"

There are conflicting reports over whether or not the Maloofs now have any intention of selling the team to another bidder, software company owner Vivek Ranadive. Regardless, George Maloof has already said not to expect an end to the Kings' saga just yet.