NBA Expansion Into Seattle, Las Vegas Likely Years Away

Eventually, the NBA wants to put a team back in Seattle. There’s little doubt about that.

And as we’ve heard lately, a team in Las Vegas, too.

In fact, no less than Lakers star LeBron James made it fairly clear that if the NBA ever puts a team in Vegas, he would like to be among its owners.

But for now, no one should get too excited about the prospects, it seems.

Per Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the idea of expansion teams in Seattle and Las Vegas remains is likely still “years away” from becoming a reality. Per Wojnarowski, the NBA is focused on the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, as well as new media rights deals, and will make those things a priority before considering expansion.

So yeah, a few years away, it seems. On the bright side for NBA fans in those cities, the “possibilities of Las Vegas and Seattle as expansion candidates are real,” Wojnarowski wrote.

Seattle, of course, once had the beloved SuperSonics, and still owns the nickname and green-and-yellow color schemes. Las Vegas would be new to the NBA scene.

Commissioner Adam Silver has often stated that the league hopes to put a franchise back in Seattle someday. He also has repeatedly praised Las Vegas for its work hosting the NBA Summer League in July.

Along with that, it should be noted that both cities already have WNBA franchises. They both have NFL teams, with Seattle also home to MLB and NHL clubs, and Vegas the NHL. So pro basketball is basically all that’s left in both spots.

Granted, there have been previous reports about Seattle expansion, probably all the way back to when the franchise moved to Oklahoma City in 2008. And Silver has had to shoot them down, to a degree, most recently saying that the league has “dusted off some expansion analysis,” but committing to nothing.

The NBA has held several preseason games at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle.