Adam Silver Made It Pretty Clear That Expansion In The NBA Is On The Horizon

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The idea that the NBA will eventually expand and add two more franchises isn't exactly new. This is something that Adam Silver has been hinting at dating back years, just like he did in early 2021

This man has been cockteasing the fine people of Seattle for years when it comes to maybe getting a team back one day. He's called it "inevitable", other cities like Vegas are getting their ducks in a row

There have been additional signs and nuggets that came out back when the Blazers were being sold

We've had more and more reason to think that one day in the future, there was going to be NBA basketball in both Vegas and Seattle. We know professional sports work in Vegas, and Seattle has deserved a team ever since the Sonics were ripped from that fanbase. 

Last night before Game 2, Adam Silver was once again asked about the idea of expansion, and his answer was perhaps the most encouraging and exciting response we have from him to date

New CBA? Check

New TV Deal? Pending, but that's going to be a check

New NBA Teams? That's what comes next.

While knowing absolutely nothing about TV/media negotiations, I feel like the CBA was the hard part of this process and that thing is now locked in to run through the 2029-30 season. I feel confident the NBA won't suddenly stop being on our TVs, so I'm going to assume the media negotiations certainly won't be a roadblock. 

Silver says they don't have anything specific in mind right now, but that's a lie. Silver knows it. The Inside crew knows it. You know it. The answer is Seattle and Vegas. How could it not be? Who makes a more compelling case for an NBA team than those two locations? Both seem like relative no brainers to me. Figure out the conference realignment which shouldn't be that hard and let's go. It's pretty clear professional sports works in Vegas, in a basketball sense the Summer League continues to get bigger and bigger to the point where they are selling out the Thomas & Mack center, and the NBA is really the only major sport missing. That's not going to be how it is much longer, especially when the NBA realizes how much money they can make. 

There's so much talent in the league I'm pretty sure they can support two new additional teams. As long as none of my favorite players from my favorite team get sent to these expansion teams I'm all for it. That brings on a whole new level of intrigue once we get to another expansion draft. Back when this happened in the mid 90s, teams could protect 8 guys on their roster. That could get pretty interesting when you think of how deep some teams are in the league today. I'm all for chaos, so if expansion brings us chaos then I say full steam ahead.

But mostly I'm just happy for the people of Seattle. Whenever the expansion finally does happen, it will be long overdue