Columnist Dean Juipe: Partying like Kings suits Maloof

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, June 1, 1999 | 10:28 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or 259-4084.

Connie Mack owned and managed the old Philadelphia Athletics baseball team for 50 years and he was a tightfisted son of a gun.

Once during his 1901-50 reign he was quoted as saying "It's more profitable for me to have a team that is in contention for most of the season, but then finishes fourth. A team like that will draw well enough during the first half of the season to show a profit for the year, and you don't have to give the players raises when they don't win."

Obviously, he wasn't much for lavishing extras on his players. He probably enjoyed owning the team, yet he was clearly aloof and he likely saw himself as better than the men who played for the A's and were subjected to his every whim.

It's hard to say how atypical he was. Throughout the history of professional sports there have been owners who were skinflints and owners who were magnanimous, and Mr. Mack, as he insisted on being called, certainly was at the least desirable extreme.

At the other end of the spectrum is George Maloof, a Las Vegas resident whose family owns the Sacramento Kings of the National Basketball Association.

"This is so much fun," he said Saturday night as he hosted not only the Kings but another 100 or so guests at his Spanish Trail home. This was a party that had all the extras, right on down to the valet parking, the catered food and the oldies rock band.

As occasions go, this one was sufficient to merit the attendance of Robin Leach, the rumor monger and reporter for the TV show "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous." He mingled, with a camera crew tallying the stylish celebrities.

Maloof, meanwhile, manned the front door and handled the welcomes. It was very much apparent that he enjoyed the responsibility.

Whatever the cost, he was relishing the hospitality he could show the Kings and making it clear to everyone else that having a stake in a professional sports team is something that gives him great pleasure.

It was heartwarming in a sense, given the animosity that still exists between many athletes and owners. After all, the image that has been created with all the labor strife in pro sports -- including the NBA, which endured a 30-game lockout this season -- is one of adversity between the principal parties as each vies for as large a slice of the financial pie as possible.

That type of pettiness may not exist on the Kings, who were being feted at the Maloof residence in spite of the fact they seemingly had the Utah Jazz pinned to the mat before being bounced from the playoffs back on May 16.

Nonetheless, the team played well down the stretch and its owner wanted to say thanks with a gracious celebration that included not only the Kings and their support staff but a largely local contingent of friends and followers. (Only his banker knows if Maloof could have afforded the endless generosity he may have been tempted to display had Sacramento advanced beyond the series with the Jazz.)

This was the Maloof family's first season owning the Kings and it's a relationship off to a nice start, with an up-and-coming team and a family whose late patriarch -- George Sr. -- once owned the Houston Rockets.

It's one thing to like sports and it's quite another to have money. As George Maloof has already shown, he appreciates the finer qualities of both.