Basketball: Sacramento Kings moving to Seattle - report

The Sacramento Kings NBA franchise is set to be re-located to Seattle according to reports.

Seattle has been without a team since the SuperSonics were moved to Oklahoma City, to become the Thunder, in 2008.

According to Yahoo.com's NBA reporter Adrian Wojnarowski, a deal has been struck which will see the Kings make the 1,211km move up the west coast.

"The deal will sell the Kings for approximately $US500 million, with the Seattle group seeking relocation to Key Arena for the 2013-'14 season," Wojnarowski tweeted.

The Kings have been based Sacramento since 1985 and reached the Western Conference finals in 2002 but have failed to play in the NBA finals.

In recent seasons they have struggled, having last made the playoffs in 2005. They have a 13-22 record so far this season and sit in 13th place out of 15 teams in the Western Conference.

As the SuperSonics, Seattle won the 1979 NBA title. Since re-locating to Oklahoma City, the Thunder have thrived making last season's NBA finals before going down to the Miami Heat in five games.

- nzherald.co.nz