The NBA and commissioner Adam Silver have talked about the possibilities of in-season tournaments, revised playoff formats, and new rules pertaining to tampering, trades, and free agency, but the hottest topic for quite some time in regards to the league’s annual meetings is the idea of league expansion.
The Charlotte Bobcats, now the Charlotte Hornets, were the last expansion team in the NBA back in 2004 and with more and more talent entering the league through the draft, plus the idea of equaling out “superteams” in the league, the NBA could serious re-open conversations about adding two more expansion teams to take the league to 32 total teams.
Ahead of the 2021 NBA Finals, commissioner Adam Silver discussed the possibility of league expansion in the future and made it clear that the league is not ruling out adding new franchises in time.
“The most important considerations for us when we look at expansion is, will it ultimately grow the pie? Meaning, it’s potentially 30 more jobs if you expand with two teams,” Silver said. “You expand the league’s footprint. How does that help us in varying ways, sort of increased support nationally?
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“So we’ll continue to look at it. I mean, I’ve said this many times before, we’re certainly not suggesting we’re locked at 30 teams. I think at some point it will make sense to expand, but it’s just not at the top of the agenda right now.”
While the NBA has said recently that they have no active plans for expansion, this does not mean that it is on the table as a possibility for the near future.
Many tend to believe that the league will be adding two new franchises within the next 5-7 years and one market that is always brought up in discussions to get a new expansion team is the city of Seattle.
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Once home to the Seattle SuperSonics, the city of Seattle has been wanting to get an NBA franchise back for years.
It is not hard to believe that Seattle will be getting an NBA franchise in the near future and here are three reasons why the league must bring the SuperSonics back to Seattle.
