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SACRAMENTO –

From the perspective of a public relations professional, the addition of Shaquille O’Neal to the Sacramento Kings ownership group is a windfall of positive PR for the city.

“A star basketball player and now a star businessman” is how Doug Elmets, president of Elmets Communications, describes him.  “Somebody who provides enormous PR value.  Somebody who’s going to give us global identity.  And that is great for Sacramento’s perspective.  And I think it works for his benefit as well.”

O’Neal is now working to help reverse the image of Sacramento as a “cowtown,” which is what he used to call it.

“Sacramento is often referred to as a weigh station between San Francisco and Tahoe,” said Elmets in a Tuesday conversation with FOX40.  “Now we’re going to have an identity of our own, not only because we’re going to have this state of the art, world class arena.  But we’ve got star power in people like Shaquille O’Neal, Mitch Richmond, and even the mayor who was a fantastic basketball player in his day.”