Local plans were still being plotted, and people in the know here continued to swear that this story may not end with the Seattle Sonics being born again at the expense of Sacramento. Purple paraphernalia was everywhere during a win over the Cleveland Cavaliers, but white flags were nowhere to be found.

Sacramento isn’t giving up, mostly because the man who runs their city refuses to give in.

Kevin Johnson, the former NBA point guard and Sacramento mayor who kept the team from moving to Anaheim in April 2011 and thus created legions of believers in this area, has that curious look again. His counter-intuitive confidence is the driving force of the optimism in the California Capital, that I-know-something-you-don’t-know vibe of his that carries so much weight because of past successes and his close relationship with NBA commissioner David Stern.

via Sam Amick of USA TODAY Sports