The NBA has long hinted that it may look to expand beyond its current slate of 30 franchises.
Commissioner Adam Silver has, at various points, alluded to waiting for different moments to make a determination, before ultimately kicking the can down the road.
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The league hasn’t expanded since adding the then-Charlotte Bobcats in 2004. But it seems like that might change soon.
Recently, he had suggested that the league’s board of governors would move to add two new teams after the league wrapped up its media rights deal.
A new 11-year, $77 billion agreement was ratified in August 2024, and kicked in to start the ongoing 2025-26 season. The league’s national broadcast rights are now split between three broadcast partners: Disney (via ESPN/ABC, a longtime collaborator), Amazon (via Prime Video) and Comcast Universal (NBC/Peacock).
Silver quickly put the kibosh on talks of a new NBA franchise, let alone two. That said, he hinted that the league could be looking to expand to Europe in some form.
Now, ahead of Tuesday’s Emirates NBA Cup Finals clash between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks, Silver spoke with gathered reporters about the state of the league at large. Conversation eventually, surprisingly, returned to this notion of league expansion, a concept that had seemingly been dormant for years.
According to Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic, Silver has now established a new timeline for an expansion decision, claiming that “sometime in 2026 we’ll make a determination.”
You’ll forgive Newsweek Sports if we’re a bit skeptical.
Vorkunov notes that Silver specifically shouted out the two cities most often floated in these rumors, Las Vegas and Seattle.
The Seattle SuperSonics, as fans will recall, were long a beloved mainstay in the league. Seattle won a title over the then-Washington Bullets in 1979, behind the heroics of Finals MVP Dennis Johnson, prior to his Boston Celtics run. The SuperSonics were effectively avenging a Finals loss to Washington the year prior. Seattle would make the NBA Finals a third time, in 1996, during the team’s Gary Payton-Shawn Kemp era.
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After pledging to keep the team in Seattle long-term when he bought it in 2006 for $350 million (a bargain now), Oklahoma City-based businessman Clay Bennett quickly reversed course, moving the SuperSonics and redubbing them the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Thunder have achieved remarkable success during their short NBA lifespan, having appeared in a pair of NBA Finals with multiple MVPs in 2012 and 2025. Behind three-time All-NBA First Team point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and All-NBA small forward Jalen Williams, plus an overqualified, defense-first supporting cast, Oklahoma City won it all last summer. At 24-2 so far, this year’s team looks even better — with big man Chet Holmgren blossoming into an All-Star in his own right.
But they’re now a small-market franchise, and have often struggled to retain their own free agents while occasionally making head-scratching trades to save costs. Seattle’s understandably bitter fanbase can’t revel in its old team’s good fortune.
Las Vegas has long been seen as a natural next destination for the NBA. In recent years, the city has added successful NFL, NHL and WNBA franchises. While tourism has nosedived this year, it’s still seen as a big-ticket market.
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