With the sheer amount of talent in the NBA at the moment, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the league has had plans for expansion for a while now. We last saw it happen in 2004 when the Charlotte Bobcats came into the league, and there had been some talk about two more teams being added.
Reports came out last year that Seattle and Las Vegas are the two likeliest cities to get expansion teams, as the NBA also looked to recoup losses from the pandemic. We had not seen many major developments on that front since then, but it would seem an official announcement isn’t too far away.
NBA Insider Says The League Wants To Announce The Two Expansion Teams Before The Upcoming Season
It was previously announced that NBA preseason games were returning to Seattle this year for the first time since 2018, and what better time to announce that the NBA is well and truly returning to the city? Willie Ramirez reported that the league wants to announce its two new expansion teams during the Clippers’ two games at Climate Pledge Arena.
https://twitter.com/WillieGRamirez/status/1567379432813502464
“Multiple sources have told me the NBA want to finally announce expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle during the Clippers’ two preseason games at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena, on Sept. 30 and Oct. 3.”
“The Lakers then play two preseason games in Vegas on Oct 5 and 6.”
The city of Seattle and its basketball fans have been desperate for the NBA to return after the Supersonics left in 2008 and they might finally be getting their wish. We saw during the CrawsOver Pro-Am League that there is a lot of interest in basketball in the area and it is definitely a market where the NBA can be profitable in. Fans in Seattle had shown up in great numbers to watch LeBron James play at the CrawsOver Pro-Am and they were left disappointed when the game had to be called off midway through the second quarter. It seemed like the last chance to watch LeBron play a game in Seattle had gone by, but with the way he is going and with this report of a team coming to the city, they will hope that the King gets an opportunity to show up and ball out in front of them.
Las Vegas has also long been rumored to be a potential destination for a new franchise, and after the NFL moved in with the Las Vegas Raiders just a couple of years back, it looks like the NBA will follow suit. It is fantastic news for the fans in these cities as they will be treated to some terrific action.
