While pondering the recent developments Saturday afternoon, I (Ailene Voisin) called Joe Maloof’s cellphone, and in yet another in an ongoing series of surprises, he not only answered but responded to a quick series of questions. Here is an abbreviated version of the intense, 20-minute conversation.

Why did you kill the deal?

It was a bad deal. The main thing was … the projected revenues were too high. They were at 2005 levels, before the housing bubble burst and the economy went down. We kept telling (NBA attorney) Harvey Benjamin that. He didn’t listen, he didn’t listen.

How do you feel 24 hours after the fact? Any regrets?

We feel like criminals, and we didn’t do anything wrong. This was just the wrong time and this was the wrong deal. When the time is right, we’ll do a deal. We’ll look at another downtown deal or something at Natomas. Bring us a deal we can sign. Nobody wanted to get an arena done more than we did. We’ve been talking about it for 13 years. Everyone just needs to calm down. We all need to cool off.

So what’s different a year later? A lot of people still suspect your plan is to spend next season in Sacramento and then file for relocation in March.

That’s not true, that’s not true. I swear that is not going to happen. I don’t care what rumors are out there. It’s our team. We’re not selling, and we’re not leaving. Our identity is the Sacramento Kings. That’s how we’re known.

via Ailene Voisin of The Sacramento Bee