Lonnie Wong was there to report on the Kings’ first-ever game in Sacramento in 1985.

SACRAMENTO-

Sitting next to Mitch Richmond inside Firestone Public House wasn’t just a fan, but a piece of NBA history and perhaps, one of the keys to the Sacramento Kings future.

His name is David Dworkin. His cousin, Lester Harrison, was the original owner and coach of the Rochester Royals, the team which eventually became the Sacramento Kings.

“They are one of only a handful of original franchises still left,” Dworkin told FOX40.

When news of a possible sale to Seattle broke, Dworkin called Mayor Kevin Johnson and signed on to join the local minority owners, each ponying up a million dollars, to try and keep the team in Sacramento.

“To comeback, full circle, 60 years later and bring a family back in, it’s a really interesting dynamic and I think the history is something that shouldn’t be lost here,” Dworkin said.

Dworkin wears Lester Harrison’s NBA Hall of Fame ring. He says his family’s history, like being one of the first teams to integrate pro basketball, would be lost if the team moved to Seattle.

“My understanding is they are the Seattle SuperSonics and they’re not the Seattle Kings. So if they’re the SuperSonics, they’re connectivity would be to Seattle,” said Dworkin.

He says even years later, people in Rochester would be said to see the Royals/Kings franchise drift into the ether.

“If you live in Sacramento and you move somewhere else, you still get your roots to where you were born and raised, it’s almost as if the child moves somewhere else, but there’s still connectivity. To Rochester, it’s the Sacramento Kings,” Dworkin said. “They feel, at least I feel a great connectivity to here now and that’s why it’s important that history remains. You just can’t uproot something.”

Dworkin says he’s fighting for his hometown and his now adopted hometown, Sacramento.

“You just can’t wipe something out that existed for so long,” he said.

SACRAMENTO-

A teacher from the Sacramento area has imparted his love for the Kings on his students in Thailand.

Kevin Johnson shares a name with Sacramento’s mayor. Johnson has been a fan of KJ and the Sacramento Kings.

While living in Thailand with his girlfriend, Johnson has been teaching English to children. The couple recorded a video of the students cheering for the Sacramento Kings, showing support for the team knows no borders.

“We just thought, ‘let’s have fun the last week of school with the kids,’” Johnson said, Skyping from his hotel room in Thailand.

In the video, Johnson leads his students in a “SAC-RA-MEN-TO” chant.

“‘Here We Buy’ night [...] I got chills watching from Thailand,” he said. “We can’t lose them.”

You can watch Johnson’s video by clicking here.

SACRAMENTO-

For the third year running, the Kings and the City of Sacramento will be a topic of conversation at NBA All-Star Weekend.

“2013 is kind of the final act. It’s act three,” said Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, “We’re going to Houston knowing what’s at stake and the Seattle people would like you to believe that the deal is done. It’s not done in Seattle. We’re going to make sure we get this message out loud and clear.”

While not ready to announce to the world who potential equity partners, or “whales,” he has lined up to buy the team and build the arena might be, Johnson indicated in his weekly news conference, he might tip his hand to other NBA owners, while making his pitch to them this weekend.

“You know as well as I know that I can’t publicly say everything right now because we’re working on very sensitive issues, but talking to the folks that are on my target to be lobbied, they’ll understand what’s going on and the level of what’s really going to happen,” Johnson said.

At the 2011 All-Star game, the news dropped the Maloofs intended to move the Sacramento Kings to Anaheim. In 2012, details were ironed out to build the team a new arena in the downtown Sacramento rail yards.

2013 will be a weekend long schmooze-fest for Johnson. It’ll be a preemptive strike before the final showdown April 18 and 19 at the NBA Board of Governors meeting in New York.

Johnson says finalized plans about equity partners and new arena plans by the March 1 NBA relocation deadline, if not earlier, but that the announcement won’t happen before every ‘T’ is crossed and every ‘I’ is dotted.

“We want to have all of our ducks and every agreement, every action, every selling point that creates an opportunity for us to show Sacramento is a compelling city to remain an NBA team,” Johnson said.