[KingsTalk.com]

NEW YORK – NBA Commissioner David Stern didn't offer any revelations during an hour-long conversation at his office early Monday, but he continues to closely monitor arena developments in Sacramento.

How closely? While watching the Super Bowl on Sunday (and pulling for New Orleans), he was interrupted by a phone call from John Moag, the arena consultant working with the Gerry Kamilos' downtown arena/land swap plan.

Weather permitting (another snowstorm was approaching), the Baltimore-based Moag planned to travel to Sacramento and address tonight's City Council meeting.

"The development of the Kamilos proposal was a pleasant surprise to me," Stern said. "The idea that was brought to us by the mayor (Kevin Johnson), that we used to call Plan B, was so inclusive in what it was doing, I had my doubts that it could even come to fruition as an idea put to paper. But I'm cautiously optimistic it will be something that everyone will be able to rally around."

As for Kings basketball, the commissioner includes himself among those who projected rookie Tyreke Evans' quick development and said he enjoys watching both of the Kings' first-round picks on the NBA League Pass telecasts.

Asked whether he in fact "smiled" while announcing the Kings' draft-day selection of Omri Casspi, as Casspi insists, Stern laughed.

"I got a kick out of that," Stern said. "Omri was perceiving a larger smile because I knew how invested a country gets in its first (NBA) draft pick, with the prospect of playing. Maybe he was referring to the twinkle in my eye instead of the smile on my face."

Stern, who is Jewish, visited with Casspi and family members later Monday afternoon.

"He said, 'Good to meet you,' " said Eitan Casspi, Omri's older brother. "Great guy. Great guy. Big office, too!"

No complaints – Despite the cold weather and crazy travel schedule, many of the Kings with East Coast roots are squeezing in time with friends and relatives.

Evans, Jason Thompson, Donté Greene and Francisco García had to arrange for additional tickets for tonight's game. Casspi's father, Shimon, flew in from Israel for his son's Madison Square Garden debut.

Et cetera – It's been a tough few weeks for García. Besides experiencing a setback in his recovery from right wrist surgery, the veteran swingman had a flu/cold and was miserable in Toronto.

• Most of the Knicks attended funeral services Monday for Dick McGuire, 84, who was a senior basketball consultant with the club at the time of his death. The younger brother of former Marquette coach Al McGuire, Dick McGuire, a Hall of Famer, had been with the organization for 53 years as a player, coach and scout.

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[joethecrow]

KingsTalk.com, on 09 February 2010 - 12:00 AM, said:

"The development of the Kamilos proposal was a pleasant surprise to me," Stern said. "The idea that was brought to us by the mayor (Kevin Johnson), that we used to call Plan B, was so inclusive in what it was doing, I had my doubts that it could even come to fruition as an idea put to paper. But I'm cautiously optimistic it will be something that everyone will be able to rally around."

The more I think about this land/swap deal, the better I think it is for the city, I think that it's a great plan, and hopefully something will come to fruition.

For more information about the proposal, read this article....

Quote

In a business dominated by big personalities, soft-spoken developer Gerry Kamilos has been an anomaly, cruising purposely under the radar.Until now.

Kamilos' dramatic proposal to build a sports and entertainment arena downtown, a new state fairgrounds in Natomas and an urban village at Cal Expo has pushed the 50-year-old native Sacramentan squarely into the spotlight.

National Basketball Association officials, who had been working with Kamilos for months, announced they back the land-swap plan and that Sacramento Kings team owners also are on board.

Kamilos, who's done suburban development in the Central Valley for 20 years, acknowledges he's never handled a downtown Sacramento deal, much less a sports and entertain arena.

But Kamilos said piecing together the arena project is, in his eyes, no different from his regular work prepping land for development.

His firm, Kamilos Companies, based in Gold River, Stockton and Modesto, specializes in the laborious, years-long work of guiding projects through the planning and government permitting process prior to construction.

"Getting them over the finish line," he said.

His firm's recent projects include subdivisions near Tracy and Stockton, as well industrial parks in Woodland and near Sacramento airport.

Kamilos said he had been watching as Sacramento struggled to find a way to build a new arena.

"It stuck in my craw," he said this week. So, "I just started to try to figure out how to solve this Rubik's cube challenge."

His concept is one of seven submitted to the task force Mayor Kevin Johnson created in November to find a way to replace 22-year-old Arco Arena, deemed outdated by the Kings and others.

http://www.sacbee.co...nk=omni_popular

[Long]

There are quite a few obstacles to this crazy deal. It's going to be tough to get this thing going. I know the people of Natomas are not in favor of it and there is a task force that has a proposal for a new arena a bit north of the current site. They don't have the financing aspect laid out though. The only reason the land swap proposal is getting play right now is because the financing is planned. We'll see what happens. At least there is some serious movement in trying to get something done.