I wouldn't put it past them to have known this was in the agreement. Considering that Balmer/Hansen were going to give them a non-refundable $30MM, they could have easily just sold it back to a Sacramento group and taken the extra money to the bank. They have been as unethical in the past, especially George. I'm convinced that he's the primary reason why every deal the city has tried to execute with them has gone sideways.
Edited: screwed up the first time
Under that scenario, they wouldn't get the $30 million from Hansen. The $30 million is non-refundable under two circumstances: the BoG denies a sale, or Hansen himself kills the deal. If the Maloofs kill the deal themselves, they don't get to keep the $30 million. You really think Hansen would hand over $30 million if the Maloofs could just change their minds on February 2nd and keep it? Absolutely not.
Also, there's no way someone like Hansen doesn't know something like that existed. Hell, there was a ROFR when Schultz sold the Sonics. There were minority owners who wanted to buy Schultz out, but he took the extra $50 million from Bennett ($350 million offer, in total) which the limited shareholders couldn't compete with. In fact, I'm pretty sure Schultz accepted Bennett's offer without even telling the other owners. They were blindsided by it, had to scramble to see if they could get a group together to buy him out. But this thing got fast-tracked to the league, essentially, and the minority owners voted (in a slim margin) to sell everything, knowing they were SOL.
This is what I mean when I say Schultz didn’t even bother asking someone like Ballmer if he wanted in (by that, I mean buy Schultz's stake). It just so happened the first guy to come calling (or the first guy David Stern sent Howard's way) offered to overpay by $50 million. Also, to digress a little bit, I was listening to KJR the other day and Steve Kelly said that at the press conference when they announced the Sonics sale, after it was over, Schultz stood in front of a few reporters and basically had a “what have I done?” look on his face. It’s like he immediately regretted his decision once it became official. He was so blinded by the thought of making so much extra money, he didn’t even give anyone a chance. You could say the Maloofs are doing the same here.