NBA Commissioner Adam Silver: No new developments on expansion
Celtics sell for $6.1B: Will the NBA now expand to Seattle?
Bill Chisholm is buying the Boston Celtics for a record $6.1 billion. We've been told that the sale of the Celtics could be a precursor to the NBA expanding to Seattle, hopefully bringing back the Supersonics.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said on Thursday that expansion is still on hold as the league works to complete the sale of the Boston Celtics.
According to Tim Booth of The Seattle Times, Silver said there are no new developments regarding expansion for the league. Silver had previously said last year the league would consider expansion during the 2024-25 season.
"I would say in terms of looking at this year, we’re still in the process of digesting the Celtics transaction," Silver said. "There’s no question a major transaction like that becomes relevant to expansion. So that deal has just been presented to us, so we’re analyzing it and my sense is that once we’ve been through that process, we’ll turn to it in a more serious way. The league office has continued to model what potential expansion could look like over the last year or so."
Silver spoke with reporters on Thursday following the league’s Board of Governors meeting in New York City. The NBA had a number of benchmark items they wanted to get wrapped up before turning their attention to expansion, which included a new Collective Bargaining Agreement and a new media rights deal. The sale of the Celtics was an additional wrinkle thrown into the process that took a massive step last week with Bill Chisholm electing to purchase the club for $6.1 billion.
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How sale of Boston Celtics removes big hurdle for Seattle Sonics possible return
The reported sale of the Boston Celtics for over $6 billion on Thursday removes the biggest remaining hurdle for NBA expansion talks as Seattle continues to wait for the return of the Supersonics.
Seattle and Las Vegas have been at the top of the pile as possible cities for expansion once the NBA elects to move forward with league growth. The sale of the Celtics sets a bar for franchise values that will allow the league to ask for a significant expansion fee from prospective owners.
Barring a change in schedule, expansion discussions appear unlikely now to occur until at least the summer.
Silver continued to speak highly of Seattle as a market, acknowledging the city’s 41-year history with the Supersonics before their departure to Oklahoma City in 2008.
"I’m tremendously empathetic to those fans," Silver said. "I will speak directly to Seattle […] I wish I could be more conclusive today and say, ‘Here it is. Here is the timeline.'"
"I would just say again to our many fans in Seattle — and I hear from them often, the legacy of the Sonics is still very strong and it’s a fantastic basketball market — is that we are very focused on it. I think the fact that I’m sort of not being more forthcoming publicly doesn’t mean we’re not studying it very intensively. We don’t take those fans for granted. We’re thankful that the interest has remained over all these years. And so I would just say the fact that we’re not ready to make any public announcements with a specific timeline doesn’t mean we don’t care a lot about those fans and are very focused on the potential for the NBA to return to Seattle."
The Source: Information in this story comes from Tim Booth of The Seattle Times.
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