Adam Silver’s message about possible expansion at the NBA Finals: everything is status quo.
The NBA Commissioner held his annual news conference before Game 1 on Wednesday night and repeated what he’s said a few times over the past two months since announcing in March the league was focused on Seattle and Las Vegas as potential expansion markets.
“Discussions are ongoing. As I think everyone knows at this point we’re focused on Las Vegas and Seattle. There’s multiple groups interested in both cities. We’re in discussions with them,” Silver said in San Antonio before Game 1 between the Spurs and New York Knicks. “As I’ve said before, it’s not a foregone conclusion that we will expand either in one city or both cities, but what we’ve told all interested parties is it’s our anticipation our board will make a decision by the end of this calendar year.”
While Silver indicated that there are multiple groups showing interested in Seattle and Las Vegas, the only locally known group remains One Roof Sports and Entertainment. Their bid potentially received a boost this week with the announcement that Melinda French Gates was becoming an investor in the ownership group for the umbrella organization that includes ownership of the Seattle Kraken.
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It’s unclear whether French Gates would be part of the investment toward a potential NBA expansion team. But her presence in the ownership structure of the organization certainly doesn’t hurt.
The next significant step for the league will be its summer Board of Governors meeting, expected to be during NBA Summer League in Las Vegas in July. Silver said in late April he did not believe the league would be ready to have the BOG take a vote on expansion in time for the July meeting, likely pushing the timeline for a possible vote into the fall.
Silver’s most notable expansion news coming from his availability was that the league’s hopes of launching a branded league in Europe remain on track to start for the 2027-28 season. Getting the Europe league started on that timeline seems important if the league wants to hit its goal of having the potential domestic expansion teams ready to start for the 2028-29 season, should expansion be approved.
Tim Booth: Tim Booth is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times, where he covers the Kraken and the ongoing story surrounding possible NBA expansion and helps with coverage of the Seahawks and Mariners.