During an appearance on ESPN on Wednesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver revealed that Las Vegas is being seriously considered a potential location for future NBA expansion teams.
The idea of Las Vegas as a possible site for the NBA has been floated multiple times, but there’s no specific timeline for when the league, which currently consists of 30 teams, plans to expand.
The NBA’s current media rights agreement, worth $24 billion over nine years, has one more year after this season. Silver has consistently stated that the league will not engage in significant expansion discussions until a new media deal is in place.
NBA EXPANSION NEWS & RUMORS: Las Vegas, Seattle, Mexico City, Vancouver, Nashville, Montreal Updates
Silver emphasized the importance of understanding future media partnerships before focusing on league expansion in his interview with ESPN, a key media partner of the NBA.
“We want to figure out what our media relationships are going to look like, but then we will turn to expansion,” Silver said.
Las Vegas is already a prominent location for the NBA, hosting its main summer league events, the WNBA’s successful Aces franchise, which has won two championships in a row, All-Star weekend activities, and the semifinals and final of this season’s first in-season tournament. The city has been a long-discussed candidate for expansion, with LeBron James expressing his desire to own a potential Las Vegas team.
NBA EXPANSION NEWS & RUMORS: Las Vegas, Seattle, Mexico City, Vancouver, Nashville, Montreal Updates
Besides Las Vegas, Seattle is frequently mentioned as a candidate, given the storied history of the SuperSonics before relocating to Oklahoma City and being rebranded as the Thunder.
In a recent interview with NBA.com, Silver noted that Mexico City is “on our radar” for expansion, although it is unlikely to happen in the next phase. Other cities like Nashville, Vancouver, and Montreal have also been mentioned as interested in obtaining an NBA expansion franchise.
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