This was supposed to be a season of ruin for the NBA. When referee Tim Donaghy was being investigated in a betting scandal that involved league games, there was much said and written about how the league was in dire trouble. None of that ever happened.

There are still some major issues on the horizon, though. A court case that’s scheduled for June in Seattle will determine where Clayton Bennett’s SuperSonics basketball team will play next fall; the league is still trying to get an arena built in Sacramento for the Maloof family’s Kings franchise, and revenue sharing between the league’s 30 owners is still a problem. If O.J. Mayo took gifts and money during his high school and college career, it is not even a blip on the NBA’s radar — it is a college problem.

The players are the game, but there is no game without the business end. The commissioner of the NBA, David Stern, is aware that owners in the NFL have decided they want a new collective bargaining agreement because they feel they are giving too much money to football players. The NBA itself signed a new collective bargaining agreement with their players in 2005, but some owners aren’t happy because they feel that big money teams aren’t sharing enough of their earnings with small markets.

“We wonder about it everyday, but we have three more years, plus a potential option [of one year] and that’s it,” Stern said in a recent interview. “We are going to make the best of our deal that we can. It’s really good for the players, and it’s not bad for many teams. For some teams, it is a struggle, and that is why we look at the possibility of increased revenue sharing.”

Increased revenue sharing would be good for the Maloof family and the Sacramento Kings. The family’s team plays in an old arena that lacks the financial lifeblood for small-market teams: luxury suites, club seats, and in-arena restaurants and stores. The brothers lost a chance at a new arena in November 2006, when Sacramento voters overwhelmingly rejected two proposals that would have funded a new building.

“I am sure [the owners] are going to look at [increased revenue sharing]. They study it every year. It is something that is important,” Joe Maloof said in an interview. “We are small market — we are a one-team market. There are years where we do well and years we lose a little money. It just depends on really how good our team is. [Revenue sharing] would be a benefit. It is something the league needs to look at.” Sacramento was one of eight small-market teams that signed a letter in 2007 asking for additional revenue sharing.

The league and the California Exposition and State Fair have reached an understanding that an arena could be built on the Cal Expo grounds, but it’s only the first step in what figures to be a long process.

“I think there is some pretty good news,” Maloof said. “The commissioner is coming into Sacramento to sit down with the business leaders and the politicians and some fans and discuss some plans they have with Cal Expo. They entered into an agreement, a letter of understanding, which is very positive, and they are going to take it from there. You got Cal Expo, the NBA, the commissioner and Governor Wilson [former Governor Pete Wilson, who is a broker in the negotiations] together, and they are going to formulate a plan and get an independent developer to come and help us develop the land.” In mid-May, the NBA and Cal Expo announced they hope to develop a Sacramento Arena plan within six months.

The Maloof family has numerous business interests elsewhere, including Las Vegas’s Palms Casino Resort. It was George Maloof Jr. who helped bring the 2007 NBA All-Star Game to the city, and there has been some conjecture that the Maloofs would be open to moving the Kings to Las Vegas. So far, it seems all parties want to exhaust all possibilities in Sacramento before looking at Las Vegas. But Joe Maloof thinks someone will eventually end up in the gambling oasis, and soon.

“The population base is there now — there are over 2 million people,” Maloof said. “There is a lot of interest, the casinos are all interested in it, and I think the people of Las Vegas would rally behind a new team. I think there is enough money, and enough interest. Whether or not it can support two [both an NBA and an NHL franchise], that is a question. But at least one, I think it could.”

A planned Las Vegas arena is being built by Los Angeles Kings owner Phil Anschutz’s AEG along with Harrahs. The arena could open in 2010 or 2011. Hollywood producer Jerry Bruckheimer has talked to NHL officials about putting an expansion team in Las Vegas.

For the time being, Las Vegas is a secondary issue for the NBA: The fate of the SuperSonics franchise in the immediate future will be determined by a Seattle judge sometime in mid-June. SuperSonics owner Clayton Bennett wants to move the team as early as this fall to Oklahoma City, but he has two years left on his lease with Seattle officials to use the city-owned arena. Bennett wants to break the lease, and Seattle wants to him to live up to the terms of the document.

“Seattle is done. But the timing of the ‘done’ is far from clear,” Stern said. “Seattle is done in terms of the team moving, but what year it is moving is open for determination by the court.”

The business of the NBA goes on despite bumps in the road such as Donaghy, a court case in Seattle, revenue sharing difficulties, or ill-feeling from Sacramento voters. It is just business, nothing personal.

evanjweiner@yahoo.com