By: E&P Staff The owners of the Sacramento Kings NBA basketball team took out full-page ads in the Detroit News and Sacramento Bee Thursday to apologize for a video that showed images of urban blight in Detroit while Detroit Pistons players were being introduced before a game earlier this week.
Owners Joe and Gavin Maloof also bought a full-page ad in the Detroit Free Press, which will run Friday.
As the Pistons were being introduced in the King's Arco Arena home court before Tuesday's game, a video ran on the Jumbotron showing what Detroit News sportswriter Chris McCosky described the next day as "a series of extremely negative images of Detroit."
"One image after another, abandoned and dilapidated buildings, burned out cars, desolate and garbage-strewn streets, on and on until the introductions were complete," McCosky wrote in the next day's account of the game.
The video angered Pistons officials -- and fired up the team, which went on to trounce the Kings 102-88.
Joe Maloof told reporters after the game he was unaware the video had been prepared, and was "sickened" by it.
This is the text of the full-page ad:
The Sacramento Kings sincerely apologize to Mr. Bill Davidson, the entire Pistons organization, the fans, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and the people of the great city of Detroit. We have great respect for Detroit's long and rich tradition as a landmark American city and the incredibly positive impact the Motor City has made over the course of our country's history. Please accept our deepest apology.
Joe Maloof Gavin Maloof
According to the Web site of the jointly produced Detroit News and Detroit Free Press, a one-time, "non-agreement" full-page full run weekday ad costs $94,874.
The National Basketball Association is investigating the incident, a spokesperson said Wednesday. It's likely the team will be fined for the video, Sacramento Bee writer Joe Davidson wrote in a Thursday article that noted that in the 2003-04 season, the league fined the Utah Jazz $15,000 for a skit that mocked the feud between Los Angeles Lakers teammates Kobe Bryant and Karl Malone, and fined the Dallas Mavericks $25,000 for a cartoon video showing an opposing player as a dog being led by his wife. Ironically, that player, Doug Christie, is now a member of the Mavericks.
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