As the NBA continues to evolve, there have been increasing conversations about potential expansion teams down the road. According to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst, however, the league is more focused on branching out into Europe than adding teams in the US market.
“This is not putting NBA teams in Europe. This would be creating a league that is run by the NBA in Europe,” said Windhorst on ESPN. “For decades, the European leagues have produced great players like Jokic and Doncic, but it’s underachieved economically. What the NBA sees is an opportunity to move into places like London, Paris, or Berlin to potentially create a league. It’s not a done deal, the owners have not signed off on it yet, but I will say that when the NBA Commissioner wants something to happen, and very clearly he wants it to happen, it probably will happen.”
NBA fans have been raving about Las Vegas and Seattle for years as potential new hosts for a franchise. Unfortunately, it could be years before any progress is made on that front.
According to Windhorst, the league wants to grow its European market, and they believe there’s an opportunity to tap into a new audience overseas. The NBA’s European league would likely be similar to the G-League and WNBA.
“Las Vegas and Seattle are still not on the table,” said Windhorst. “They’re more focused on creating a league in Europe than expanding.”
The NBA game has gone more global than ever before, and it’s reflected at the top with the origin of top basketball stars like Luka Doncic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Nikola Jokic. Europe has been producing high-quality NBA players for years now, and it’s only right for the league to consider tapping into that potential.
Of course, that means many potential US-based expansion teams will have to wait for at least a few more years before becoming a reality.
Adam Silver Confirms The NBA Is Not Ready For Traditional Expansion
Seattle and Las Vegas are passionate sports cities, and they’ve been in the mix for expansion teams for years now. Seattle used to be home to the SuperSonics, but they relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008 to become the Thunder.
Las Vegas has never had an NBA franchise, but it’s a growing sports city that is very popular among fans and players. LeBron James has already been open about his goal of owning a team in Vegas one day, and it will no doubt be one of the hottest destinations in the league.
As much as the people want expansion teams, it could be a while before we see it happen. Adam Silver confirmed today in a press conference that they are not ready to make any formal announcement.
“We are very focused on it,” said Silver, via Evan Sidery. “The fact that we’re not ready to make public announcements to a specific timeline doesn’t mean we don’t care a lot about those fans, and we aren’t very focused on the potential for the NBA to return to Seattle.”
The NBA has been actively working on getting back to Seattle (and adding a team in Las Vegas), but the priority right now is expanding overseas. If the league can establish a stronger presence in Europe, it could open up the game for countless new fans and give more European players a chance to follow their dream of playing professional basketball.
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