Commissioner Adam Silver offered hope to cities looking to land an NBA franchise, saying Thursday that the league “should be exploring” expansion.
Silver addressed the media in his annual state-of-the-league talk ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the host Oklahoma City Thunder.
Regarding the addition of teams, Silver said, “I don’t think it’s automatic, because it depends on your perspective on the future of the league. As I’ve said before, expansion in a way is selling equity in the league. If you believe in the league, you don’t necessarily want to add partners.
“On the other hand, we recognize there are underserved markets in the United States and elsewhere — I think markets that deserve to have NBA teams. Probably even if we were to expand, more than we can serve.”
In terms of potential expansion locations, Silver said, “There’s been no lack of interest. I essentially have said to people from several different cities, ‘We’re just not engaging in that process right now.’
“I want to be fair to everyone. So I don’t want to have meetings with some and not others. So if we were to say yes, we’re now going to move into a more formal exploratory phase. We would take those meetings, and in addition likely we would engage with outside advisers who would look at markets, look at economic opportunities and media opportunities, etc.”
The NBA hasn’t expanded since the then-Charlotte Bobcats joined ahead of the 2004-05 season. Las Vegas and Seattle are widely viewed as the top targets for future teams, with Mexico City potentially in the mix, too.
Silver addressed several other topics:
–While a spate of regular-season injuries prompted speculation about the NBA cutting down the 82-game regular season, Silver dismissed the notion of a lighter schedule.
“Money’s part of it, there’s no question about it,” Silver said. “We’re a business. Having said that, I don’t really see the benefit to reducing the number of games. People used to say you should reduce the number of games because it will lead to a reduction in a number of injuries. We have absolutely no data to suggest that. …
“Injuries are considered down this playoffs from what has been historically our second-lowest in 10 years. So we have pretty healthy teams coming into the Finals now.”
–After the success of the NHL’s 4 Nations Face-Off, the NBA is likely to switch to nationality-based format for the 2026 All-Star Game in Inglewood, Calif.
“I don’t think a straight-up USA versus World makes sense,” Silver said. “That’s not what they did in the NHL, either. There probably will be some different teams we form.”
Noting that the 2026 game will be played amid the Winter Olympics in Italy, Silver said, “I think we can play off that nationalism. … I think there’s a real opportunity to create enhanced interest and enhanced competition from the players.”
–Silver lauded the fact that the NBA is about to crown its seventh different champion in seven years.
“We set out to create a system that allowed for more competition around the league, the goal being to have 30 teams all in a position, if well-managed, to be competing for championships,” he said. “And that’s what we’re seeing here. …
“The goal isn’t necessarily to have a different champion every year. It’s to have, as we said before, parity of opportunity.”
