The prolonged saga of a potential Seattle Sonics return to the NBA through expansion has gone through serious ups and downs in recent years – particularly when it comes to reading between the lines of what NBA commissioner Adam Silver has said publicly.
On Thursday, Silver addressed potential expansion – and Seattle’s role in it – more directly than he has in years.
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In a conversation with The Pat McAfee Show on ESPN, Silver explained where the league stands on potentially expanding to 32 teams, what the remaining hurdles are, and mentioned two markets specifically that would be in the mix if the NBA adds franchises – and yes, Seattle is one of those markets.
Here a look at what we learned from Silver’s appearance on The Pat McAfee Show.
“We’re just beginning the process of exploring the opportunity to expand..
We’re looking hard at it and there’s no doubt that there’s been interest in Seattle and Las Vegas..
We’re looking at those markets and others”
Adam Silver #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/RQRpCdig0S
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) April 17, 2025
1. Two cities are the favorites
This will come as no surprise. If the NBA expands by two teams, it’s Seattle and Las Vegas that make the most sense. But they’re not the only cities that are lobbying for consideration, although Silver did not name those other possible expansion options.
“Look, there’s no doubt there’s been interest in Las Vegas. Seattle, I’ve been very public about it that it was a market that was fantastic for the league that we left at the time for understandable reasons, but there’s no doubt that there continues to be enormous passion in that market for the NBA,” Silver said. “So we’re looking at those markets and others.”
Silver pointed to the “success” of other pro teams in Seattle and Las Vegas. In terms of newer teams in those markets, there are the NHL’s Seattle Kraken and Vegas Golden Knights, the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders and WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces. And of course Seattle has several other healthy teams in the Mariners, Seahawks, Storm and Sounders, among others.
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Silver was still cautious to not commit too much, though.
“I think as we get into the summer, we’ll get into a more formal process of how we go about doing it. I don’t want to say it’s a foregone conclusion that we’re going to expand, but I also think over time, organizations tend to grow,” he said. “And I look at the success of those markets for other major league teams now, and so it’s easy to present a scenario where you can see it working successfully for the league.”
2. What’s been the hold-up
Expansion was expected to be on the docket last year once the NBA agreed to a massive new media rights deal. But then the defending champion Boston Celtics were put up for sale, after which Silver seemed to pump the brakes on adding teams.
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Talking to McAfee, Silver didn’t bring up the Celtics sale – which is now in process – as a hurdle. Instead, he went back to some old standbys.
“In terms of expansion, we try not to look at it every year just because we don’t want (it) to be too much of a distraction,” Silver said. “What I’ve been saying for the last several years, we knew we needed to get a new collective bargaining agreement done – we did. We needed a new media deal to get done… We’ve locked in our television rights for 11 years.
“And part of the reason you want to know what your television deal is is because you now have new partners, you’re going from dividing up the money in terms of 30 teams and those players to, let’s say if we expanded by two teams to 32. So you want to know what those economics are. So now that those things are done, we’re just beginning a process – so internally at the league – of exploring the opportunity to expand.”
Silver said there are two types of potential dilution the league has to consider before a decision on expansion is made.
“I will say sometimes on the outside (that expansion) looks like a no-brainer because it seems like you’re printing money to expand. But again, as I said, you’re really selling equity in the league,” he said. “You have 30 teams that own the league, and now you’re saying we’re gonna have 32 teams that own the league, so you’re diluting the economic interest of all the 30 teams.
“And you’re also potentially diluting the talent, because with… roughly 450 players (in the NBA), even among those (that are) the greatest in the world, there’s only so many difference-makers. And then how are those players going to be distributed around the league? That’s a lot of what we spend time on in collective bargaining agreements, the right distribution of players. And so we’re looking hard at it, we’re sort of modeling it, for lack of better term, in the league office.”
3. The NBA doesn’t seem to be in a hurry
As usually happens whenever there are updates – or non-updates – on potential NBA expansion, the overriding emphasis from Silver was patience.
So, you know, not something Seattle fans who haven’t had a Sonics team to cheer for in 17 years want to hear.
“I don’t want to jump the gun here. We have the 30 existing teams who all need to weigh in on this process, and also at some point (we) need to have direct conversations with the people who are who are interested in those teams,” Silver said. “It’s premature to do that right now. We’ve been contacted by groups who are saying we have interest in potentially being part of expansion – not just in those cities but others – and we’ve sort of said we’re not quite ready yet.
“But again, we will go through a very methodical approach to it and do it very cautiously, but we’ll continue to look at.”
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