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Tim Bontemps
LAS VEGAS – For the first time, NBA commissioner Adam Silver laid out a firm timeline for home expansion, saying a decision on how to proceed will be made sometime in 2026.
“I would say in terms of domestic expansion, it’s something we’re constantly considering,” Silver said at a news conference before the NBA Cup Finals. new York Knicks And San Antonio Spurs On Tuesday night. “It’s no secret that we’re looking at this Las Vegas market. We’re looking at Seattle. We’ve looked at other markets as well. I would say I want to be sensitive about the perception that we’re somehow cornering these markets, because I know we’ve been talking about it for some time.
“As I’ve said before, domestic expansion, as opposed to doing a new league in Europe, is selling equity in this existing league. If you own 1/30 of this league, now if you add two teams you own 1/32. So it’s a much more difficult economic analysis. In many ways, it requires predicting the future.
“I think now we’re in the process of working with our teams and assessing the level of interest and having a better understanding of what the economics would be on the ground level for those particular teams and what a pro forma would look like for them, and then at some point in 2026 we’ll make a determination.”
The topic of extension has been simmering for five years, since Silver first acknowledged the possibility in a press conference before the 2020–21 season. But unlike that press conference, when Silver first changed his public stance, he never announced a timeline for making a decision until now.
And, if the league chooses to move forward with expansion, the most favored locations to land teams are Seattle and Las Vegas – the former has been without a team in nearly 20 years since the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City, and the latter has been referred to as the “31st NBA city” sometime between hosting the NBA’s annual Summer League in July and now the NBA Cup Finals.
Silver did nothing to refute that notion on Tuesday.
“I think Seattle and Las Vegas are two incredible cities,” Silver said. “Obviously we had a team in Seattle that had great success. We have a WNBA team in Las Vegas AcesWe have been playing summer league here for 20 years, We have been playing our cup games here, so we are very familiar with this market,
“I have no doubt that Las Vegas, despite all the other major league teams that are here now, other entertainment properties, that this city can support an NBA team.”
Silver touched on several other topics on Tuesday, including:
• As the WNBA and its players are engaged in lengthy negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement, Silver said she and Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum are willing to do “whatever is necessary” to help both sides come to an agreement.
“I’m watching things very closely,” Silver said. “We are integrated in the league office. I talk to the guys on a daily basis who are at the negotiating table.
“As I’ve said before, we, the NBA, the WNBA collectively, recognize that our players deserve significantly more pay than they have received thus far based on the increased success of the league, and now it’s just a question of finding a meeting of the minds in terms of what is a fair deal. That will require compromise on both sides.
“I’m optimistic we’ll do something.”
Both sides agreed to extend the current CBA till January 9, the second extension of the talks.
• When asked about future Hall of Famer Chris Paul being dramatically sent home LA Clippers A few weeks earlier, Silver had said that he had spoken to Paul, not Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, about the situation and that he was “disappointed” that it had gotten to that point.
“I’m particularly close to Chris because he was the chairman of [National Basketball] Players Association for several years,” Silver said. “… I would love to see him finish the season with another team. He’s already announced that this is his last season, so I’d love to see him finish strong.”
Asked if he would have liked the situation to have been handled differently, Silver said it was not his job to say.
• Silver dismissed the notion that injuries are on the rise throughout the league and that there is more density in the schedule because of the NBA Cup.
“I can only deal with data,” Silver said. “And the data we have so far this season is that we have the lowest number of injuries in the last three years.
“I’ll stop here and say, no matter where the level of injuries is compared to previous years, certainly soft tissue injuries worry us. All injuries worry us. The most frustrating issue at the moment, and the one we have the least control over, is keeping star players on the field.
“I think we’ve made progress. We’ve made adjustments in scheduling. We’ve made adjustments in sharing information between teams. We’ve made adjustments in taking care of players. But there’s no silver lining here.”
Silver also discussed several other things — including players specializing in a single sport at a much younger age than in the past, the faster pace of the game today and athletes’ year-round training — as all potentially playing a role, before saying the league is committed to studying the issue in every way possible.
“So the answer is that it’s disappointing,” Silver said. “It’s disappointing for our teams. It’s disappointing for our fans. But I think we have to stay true to the evidence, rather than saying that injuries are increasing or injuries are increasing because of scheduling. That’s not the case.”
