Chris Hansen and the city of Seattle have an agreement to build a new arena, an important step in bringing an NBA team back to the area to play under the Sonics' name.

“It means a lot to the NBA,” Hansen said. “They’ve been watching very close to what we’re doing. I think going in they were very skeptical we would get to this point given our history in Seattle.

“It’s a great win for the city with the league.”

Hansen is cautioning the optimism that a team could be in Seattle by next season.

“I think it’s conceivable, that would be optimistic and that is not an expectation I would not want to set,” he said. “I worry that people are expecting us to get this deal done and it be like magic and a team would be here this year. It’s like, ‘Poof and we’ve got a deal done and where is our team?’ This is a far more difficult process. I think anybody who is intimately familiar with the NBA knows this is a tough next phase we have to go through.”