They made a great business deal. Its not "greed" (and, yes, greed is good).
At the time, the NBA was tiny blip on the nation's sports radar. They made a deal for a share of the future TV revenue, and it exploded. Good for them.
BTW, the story is wrong in one respect. The Kentucky team was not "placated with a one time payment". In fact its owner, then boy genius and Kentucky governor, John Y. Brown (Mr. Phylis George for those of you old enough to remember) had the same deal as St. Louis, but sold it back to the NBA for $3.3, which he used to buy the Celtics, which he then ran into the ground.