By ALEX RASKIN, US SPORTS NEWS EDITOR
Published: 16:57 EDT, 18 March 2026 | Updated: 16:57 EDT, 18 March 2026
Once thought to have the most dedicated fan base in the NBA, Seattle is reportedly in the running for another team 18 years after the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder.
According to league insider Shams Charania, the NBA's board of governors will vote later this month on whether to add franchises in Seattle and Las Vegas.
But while the Emerald City is cheering on the possibility, ESPN's Stephen A. Smith is lamenting a missed opportunity in Nashville, which he sees as a better option for the league.
'It's a damn shame this team is on the outside looking in,' Smith said of Nashville. ''Cause I gotta tell you something, Nashville is a growing city. A lot of people love Nashville. They are a very successful city right now. They are a thriving city in the United States of America.'
The Nashville metro area is growing, having added a reported 100,000 residents between 2020 and 2024, and the city is already popular with tourists, including country music fans and bachelorette partygoers.
However, Nashville's Predators rank just 22nd in attendance among NHL teams while the NFL's Titans are dead last in that league.
Nashville is "a thriving city in the United States of America… I’m certainly not advocating that Memphis loses a team…but in the same breath, you wonder about Nashville comparing that to Seattle." – Stephen A. Smith on NBA expansion cities pic.twitter.com/To5prs64r7
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) March 16, 2026
Nashville is a 'thriving city' according to Smith, who thinks it could play host to the NBA
Fans in the Emerald City are seen supporing their Seattle SuperSonics aback in 2005
And if the NBA wants to bring a team to Nashville, perhaps it could consider the Grizzlies, who currently play a little more than three hours west in Memphis. Three decades after the franchise began in Vancouver, the Grizz now rank at the bottom of the NBA in attendance while posting a 23-44 record.
If the expansion plan eventually gets approved, both franchises are expected to start playing in the 2028-29 season.
It's expected that bids for teams from both cities could reach as much as $10 billion and they would immediately be among the NBA's top-eight revenue earners.
The topic of expansion has gained momentum in recent months.
'Not a secret, we're looking at this market in Las Vegas. We are looking at Seattle,' NBA commissioner Adam Silver said before the NBA Cup final in December.
Shawn Kemp was a fan favorite in Seattle, where the Sonics ranked among the NBA's most popular teams until the franchise was relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008
'We've looked at other markets as well. I'd say I want to be sensitive there about this notion that we're somehow teasing these markets, because I know we've been talking about it for a while.
'I think Seattle and Las Vegas are two incredible cities. Obviously we had a team in Seattle that had great success. We have a WNBA team here in Las Vegas in the Aces.
'I don't have any doubt that Las Vegas, despite all of the other major league teams that are here now, the other entertainment properties, that this city could support an NBA team.
'I think now we're in the process of working with our teams and gauging the level of interest and having a better understanding of what the economics would be on the ground for those particular teams and what a pro forma would look like for them, and then sometime in 2026 we'll make a determination.'