NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Makes Surprising Revelation

"And the reason I say it's not obvious is because, as a global business... adding another U.S. city, arguably, it's unclear how much growth we'll get as a result of that, and when you're adding expansion franchises, you're diluting your competition... and you're diluting your economics, to the extent that we have locked-in television money now for the next decade," Silver said.

This last point about television money being an impediment serves as a marked contradiction of an earlier Silver declaration. 

During a summer 2024 presser, Silver had claimed that, once the then-not-official TV rights deal was in place, the league would seriously look into expansion, per Mike Vorkunov and Alex Andrejev of The Athletic.

“We’re not quite done with our media deals yet, but once we are, we will turn to consideration around expansion,” Silver said at the time. 

The league subsequently agreed to split its broadcast rights between longtime partner Disney (via ABC and ESPN), plus new partner Amazon Prime Video and returning collaborator NBCUniversal (NBC/Peacock), for a reported $77 billion sticker tag, according to The Athletic's Andrew Marchand.

Flashing forward to 2025, and to Silver's conversation with Patrick, Silver did allow that expansion might not be such a terrible thing, ultimately.

"I do believe certain markets can be additive to the NBA," Silver said. "This is the summer we're going to look at it seriously."

Silver noted that the league wasn't just contemplating markets in the U.S., and would be amenable to Canada or Mexico City, as well.

Whatever happens, the Seattle SuperSonics need to return to the league. Seattle fans were stunned when the franchise was moved to Oklahoma City in 2008. Should expansion not be in the cards for the immediate future, that proud former Seattle franchise could rejoin the NBA with the move of another team from an apathetic market. The New Orleans Pelicans are a prime example.