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NBA Commissioner David Stern officially announced during a press conference that the Hansen-Ballmer Group, the new Owners of the Sacramento Kings have filed for Relocation to Seattle well ahead of the March 1st deadline. This was highly expected by many to be the next big step in the re-birthing process of the Seattle SuperSonics this fall who will play in Key Arena for 2-3 seasons while the new downtown arena is built.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson knows he is running out of time to present a counter offer for the Kings and Stern has already made it clear "this is not a bidding war" and any offer to counter for the Kings had better be good one. Clarification: if it does not include an Arena deal for the capital city and a promise that fans will return, then it's not happening, not on his watch.

Then you add the tremendous challenge in which Johnson faces of trying to convince the NBA's Board of Governors and Relocation Committee that keeping a team in Sacramento that has already been sold to Seattle is a better idea then allowing the new Owners, Hansen and Ballmer to go forward with relocating the Kings to become the new Sonics.

In essence Johnson is asking the NBA owners to vote down a move that would be beneficial both to them and the city of Seattle which could produce a significant increase in bottom line profit for the league, that's a darn near impossible task to say the least and that's not even the worst of this fight Johnson finds himself in the middle of. Minority Investors who hold small shares of ownership in the Kings franchise say they are being denied their right to match the sale price offer already paid for by Hansen-Ballmer of $340 million out of the overall $525 million franchise price tag. Plus the $30 milion non refundable deposit already paid to the Maloof Brothers to secure Relocation costs.

And with the Maloof's now out of the picture, Johnson may make a compelling case for why he should be allowed to retain the Kings in Sacramento but he also cannot force a reverse of sale which has already been paid for and completed.

Make no mistake, Sacramento fans will fight with the same kind of passion that Sonics fans are fighting for to regain the team they lost back in 2008 but unfortunate as it is, the NBA always puts money and business ahead of fans or anything else and when it makes sense to Relocate a team from a small market to a larger market, somebody is likely to lose and in this case, it just so happens that Sacramento will suffer the same fate that Seattle did when Clay Bennett uprooted the former Sonics and moved them to OKC in 2008.

So as sweet as it is for Sonics fans and as bittersweet a loss it is to Sacramento fans, its time to dust off those old Sonics Jersey's and gear, because the Sonics are about to be Reborn.