The Loudest NBA Crowd of All Time? It wasn't Sacramento (or Seattle!)

Whenever one of the inevitable Seattle vs. Sacramento flame wars heat up, one of the things Kings fans like to bring up is the alleged Guinness record held by their old Arco arena as the loudest NBA crowd of all time.

Now, having had my ears drums nearly melted at several Seattle sporting events over the years, I had a hard time believing this. I mean, even with all those goddamned cowbells, how could roughly 17,000 people at Arco be louder than a sold-out Coliseum booing Charles Barkey and the refs in the 1993 Western Finals against the Phoenix Suns? Or the grunged out Key Arena maniacs cheering on the Sonics as they blew out the greatest team of all time in game four of the 1996 NBA Finals? Or the (then) record 40,172 screaming Supersonics fans at the Kingdome in 1980? 

Well, it turns out the Guinness Record for loudest NBA crowd of all-time is not held by the Sacramento Kings. Nor is it held by our beloved Seattle Supersonics. Well then, who the hell does hold the record? 

(click below to find out)

Flashback: Stern pressured Maloofs to sell Sacramento Kings to Seattle?

Twitter user RW34MVP (wasn't that one of the bounty hunters in Empire Strikes Back? ) posted an article from six months ago by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports stating that the NBA was pressuring the Maloofs to sell the Sacramento Kings to Chris Hansen because Stern was "determined to get a franchise back into Seattle" before his reign as ruthless dictator NBA commissioner ended:

Between now and his departure, Stern is determined to get a franchise back into Seattle, league sources said, and has become a strong ally of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s group to bring back the NBA there. Ballmer’s group has been trying to get the Maloof family to sell the Sacramento Kings, so that the franchise can eventually play in a new arena in Seattle. 

From the league office, pressure on the Maloofs to sell has been growing, sources said — just as hopes for a new Sacramento arena have been fading. Seattle Sonics fans will never forgive Stern for his complicit role in Clay Bennett’s deception to move that franchise to Oklahoma City, but make no mistake: Stern desperately wants to return the NBA to one of its great markets and wants it for his own measure of vindication before he leaves office. 

As one source involved in the process said, “Stern has enough time to get a team back to Seattle, but he’ll let Silver deal with the crowd [booing] on opening night.”

Yikes. Have times really changed this quickly or was this whole Seattle vs. Sacramento deal a diabolically Stern-esque set-up from the start?

Ultimate poison pill in Seattle Supersonics, Sacramento Kings battle? Keeping Maloofs in NBA

When I mentioned a few weeks ago that Team Hanson was about to go into Scorched Earth Mode in their efforts to build Seattle Supersonics 2.0, I was thinking Ballmer might let his rabid pack of Microsoft lawyers off the leash. I don't think anyone dreamed they would truly use the nuclear option. The very last of last resorts. The unthinkable horror of . . . THE MALOOF SOLUTION!

Two sources told ESPN.com the Maloofs have informed their fellow owners that if their deal to sell and relocate the Kings to Seattle is not approved by league owners next week, they will not sell the team to a Sacramento-based group that promises to keep the Kings in Sacramento. 

Instead, the cash-strapped Maloofs have made a "backup" agreement with the Hansen-Ballmer group to sell it 20 percent of the team for $125 million to allow the Maloofs to continue to operate the franchise. 

From ESPN

Oh sweet lordy. PLEASE let this just be more crafty posturing to leverage an expansion team out of the NBA. Seattle does not want these guys owning the Sonics. I think this town has had enough sleazy,  awful owners, thank you.