Guess What Kings Fans, The Maloofs Are Never Going Away

Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: Hotelier Sacramento Kings owner Joe Maloof.

Maloof stopped by KHTK in Sacramento with the Rise Guys to discuss the trouble with owning a small-market team, selling the Rockets back in the day, and how excited he is about DeMarcus Cousins.

On the lack of attendance and how that could hurt the possibility of a new arena: "We've gotta concentrate on getting fans back into Arco. That's our number one goal and our number one objective. We've gotta get people back in there to watch these games. I think they got a little disenchanted with the team we've had. We haven't had a good team, we've had a very bad team the last three years. As most people know these things go in cycles. You're gonna have some good years and some not so good years. That's why I feel very good that we're on our way back this year. With the talent we have we can really make some noise in the West."

On being approached by other cities: "I think anytime you have one of these and there's only 30 in the world, you're gonna have cities approach you and try and get that franchise to their city. It just happens and it's happened throughout the past 10 or 11 years that we've owned it. I'm sure more cities will come in the future but we're concentrating on trying to get it fixed here in Sacramento."

On how tough it was to sell the Rockets: "Yes. Yes. We sold the Rockets and the next day we were on the road looking for another NBA team. It was really a void in our hearts. We loved that team. My dad passed on and we had to make a move that financially it was the right way to go. We had to sell that team, but we'll never sell this team. We love it too much." On how tough it is for a team like Sacramento to build a roster: "It almost gets to a point where you have to hit a homerun. It's very difficult to compete when you're not filling up that arena. That's the problem. You have to be able to get the fans in and it's a catch 22. We made the decision to build through the draft and that's what we've done. We're gonna try and take a page out of Oklahoma City's book. They've done a fantastic job in their drafts and I think Geoff (Petrie) has done a wonderful job with the players he's brought in. If you go up and down our roster and look at other team's rosters you're gonna see why we're all so excited. It's hard to find a big man I'd rather have than DeMarcus Cousins. Maybe (Pau) Gasol for a while, but outside of that I think Cousins is going to be the best center in the league some day." This post, written by Chris Fedor, appears courtesy of Sports Radio Interviews. For the complete highlights of the interview, as well as audio, click here.