Retired basketball star Metta Sandiford-Artest is interested in bringing an NBA franchise to the Las Vegas area.
According to Arash Markazi of The Sporting Tribune, Sandiford-Artest believes that league expansion will soon take its landing in Vegas and he is willing to build a partnership with the Maloof family to fulfill it.
“I’m very interested in talking with different groups to see if they would allow us the opportunity to get involved,” Sandiford-Artest told The Sporting Tribune. “I think you have to somehow involve the Maloofs. I think the Maloofs set the tone for Las Vegas.”
Though plans are yet to be accomplished as the new Collective Bargaining Agreement and television deals aren’t still being discussed, Las Vegas is not that new in murmurs of a desired expansion by the NBA, given its big market features and reputation it holds as the Entertainment Capital of the World.
For their part, the Maloof family is not that distant also in sports franchise ownership. They held the NBA’s Houston Rockets (1979-1982) and the Sacramento Kings (1998-2012), and are now minority owners of the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League (NHL).
“I love the Maloofs and I would like to work with the Maloofs again,” said World Peace, who played for the Kings from 2006 to 2008 when the club was owned by the Maloofs. “They have been nothing but family to me. I think just having an advisory board with the Maloofs on it makes perfect sense. It just shows that you’re coming into the city with some respect. It shows that you’re coming into the city, understanding that the foundation was laid by the Maloofs.”
Sources told Markazi that the Maloof family is indeed interested in being a part of the ownership group that will place an NBA club in Las Vegas.
“The Maloofs are still loved as owners,” World Peace said. “Not only by the players that played for them but by people around the league. It was very unfortunate that they lost the team when they sold the Kings but they didn’t lose their friends. They didn’t lose the people that knew them. And we want to make sure that the Maloof legacy goes down as some of the best sports owners that we’ve ever seen.”
Last month, LeBron James expressed his interest to carry a league team in Vegas, which made NBA Commissioner Adam Silver delighted.
