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YAKIMA -- While work progresses on a deal with local investors to buy the Sun Kings, another potential buyer has emerged -- and he's one quite familiar to fans.

Otis Harlan said Thursday that he's seriously interested in reaquiring the team that he owned in 1999.

"I am now," Harlan said Thursday. "If two things come together, I'd do it."

Harlan declined to say what those things were, but Sun Kings coach Paul Woolpert, who spoke with Harlan Thursday evening, said that Harlan wants to retain him as coach, and wants to know about the strength of the CBA, which has struggled since losing four teams to the NBA's Developmental League prior to the 2006-07 season.

"I told him that if I didn't have something in the NBA, and he owned this team, I'd like to be his coach,"
Woolpert said when
reached late Thursday evening. "I told him that, as far as the strength of the league goes, that he should call (CBA deputy commissioner) Dennis Truax, but in my mind, the league will be as strong or stronger than last year."

Of course, Harlan may not get an opportunity to buy the team, because the league has been in serious discussions the past two weeks with a group of unnamed local investors.

Truax, unaware of Harlan's intentions when reached earlier Thursday, said those talks have moved slower than he had hoped, but said there are no
significant obstacles blocking a deal, and confident a deal will be finalized.

"We're still moving forward, and I still think it's something that can be done," said Truax, who said the exchange of information and paperwork has taken longer than expected, causing the delays. "I know they're busy (with other things) and I don't want to push them. But they also know there is some urgency to this."

It's not known how Harlan's emergence could alter those discussions, but Woolpert viewed it as a positive sign.

"I think it's great. I think it's outstanding that there are leading citizens in Yakima that want to stand up and keep the Sun Kings in town," said Woolpert, who expressed no preference for a new owner.

"Obviously, I'd be supportive of any group or individual that steps up," he said, "but I have a comfort factor with Otis Harlan."