Adam Silver Dismisses Rumors Pertaining To Possible NBA Expansion

Ahead of Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Finals on Thursday night, NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke to the press and talked about the possibility of league expansion moving forward.

There have been quite a few rumors floating around in recent weeks about the NBA possibly looking to expand in the coming years when the league’s media rights deal expires in 2024.

On Thursday night ahead of the start of the 2022 NBA Finals, NBA commissioner Adam Silver had his yearly Finals press conference in which hot topics around the league are always addressed.

Not only were topics like the All-NBA voting and social justice reform discussed, but the idea of league expansion was brought up as well. 

After being asked about his thoughts on possible future expansion and if the league has held any discussion in regards to adding new teams, Silver was very quick to shut down any rumors pertaining to new teams being adding in the coming years.

“Just to answer the first part of your question directly, that talk is not true,” Adam Silver said in response to some saying that the league is looking to expand to Seattle and Las Vegas within the next couple of seasons. “At least maybe there are people talking who are not at the league office about us potentially expanding after the 2024 season. We are not discussing that at this time.

“As I said before, at some point, this league invariably will expand, but it’s not at this moment that we are discussing it.”

The NBA has not added a new team since the Charlotte Bobcats organization back in 2004, now known as the Charlotte Hornets. Multiple cities have been brought up as possible markets the NBA would like to explore in the future, Las Vegas and Seattle being a part of this list, but the commissioner and the league office do not seem too motivated to move forward with any of these rumored ideas right now.

“But those are wonderful markets. Again, as I’ve said before, we were in Seattle. I’m sorry we are no longer there,” Silver went on to mention. “We have a WNBA team in Seattle in an almost brand-new building that’s doing spectacular. And Las Vegas, where we will be at our Summer League in July, has shown itself to be a great sports market as well.”

Adam Silver did talk about how one of the issues with league expansion is that there will be a drop off of talent because of the fact that there will not be enough “super talents to go around.”

With the constant growth of the league worldwide and more and more talent entering the league each year, the NBA finds itself in a very good spot where expansion could absolutely help strengthen their grasp as being one of the world’s premier sports leagues.

However, possible league expansion is nothing more than an after thought right now, as Silver gave no indications on Thursday evening that the NBA is actively looking to add a 31st and 32nd team.

“We’ll be looking at it at some point, but there’s no specific timeline right now.”