In a reversal from his earlier remarks on the expansion issue, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Monday afternoon that the league has examined its analysis of the ramifications of expanding beyond 30 teams.
“I think I’ve always said it’s kind of a manifest destiny for the league that you expand at some point,” Silver said during his annual preseason availability with reporters. “I would say that it has led us to dust off some of the analysis on the economic and competitive impacts of the expansion. We have been spending a little more time than we were before the pandemic. But certainly not at this point, that expansion is in the front burner “.
Silver said that while there hasn’t been a change in the league’s position, every time he’s been asked about the potential for expansion in recent years, he’s said it’s not something the league is considering.
But with the NBA opening up credit lines during the pandemic to provide financial relief to its teams, it is notable that Silver recognized the possibility of expanding beyond the current 30 teams, particularly as each expansion team would come with a fee of considerable input, but certainly in excess of $ 1 billion, which would then be passed on to current teams.
“You know, we are very grateful to the markets that have shown interest in having an NBA team,” Silver said. “One of the problems for the league office, and this comes up all the time in terms of competitiveness, it’s no secret that we don’t have 30 competitive teams at any given time right now when you go into the season, measured by probability of ability to win a championship.
“One of our focuses as a league office is always how to create better competition. So that’s one of the things that we keep thinking about as we consider expansion … It’s an economic issue and it’s a competitive issue for us. So it’s one that we’ll continue to study, but we’re spending a little more time on it than we were before the pandemic. “
The NBA hasn’t added a team since it expanded to 30 by agreeing to add the Charlotte Hornets, then Bobcats, in 2002 (they started playing in 2004). If the league decides to expand, Seattle would likely be first in line. Seattle almost got the Sacramento Kings in 2013 before Vivek Ranadive bought the team and kept it in Sacramento. Seattle hasn’t had a team since the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City in 2008.
Silver addressed a variety of topics, including the league’s policy on kneeling for the national anthem.
After virtually all players, coaches and staff members knelt to hear the national anthem on the bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida earlier this year, Silver said he hopes the league will return to its policy of defending the anthem.
He said the league has continued dialogue with players on the issue, and while there will be no penalties if people choose not to stand, if there are changes to that policy, everyone will agree with them.
“There has always been the notion that this league is bigger than a team, a player, a league office,” Silver said. “I think that’s why we’ve been so successful over the years, because we really came together and solved some very difficult issues in some cases.
“I recognize that this is a very emotional issue on both sides of the equation in America right now, and I think it requires real commitment rather than just enforcing the rules.”
Silver also said that after the NBA suspended its random testing policy for marijuana for this season, the NBA and the National Association of Basketball Players would discuss the matter further next offseason. He said that while society’s views on marijuana use have changed, different laws from state to state are something the league is considering when deciding how to proceed.
When asked about the idea of the league returning to a bubble for the playoffs, Silver said that anything is a possibility, but his hope is that the vaccine for COVID-19 is successful enough that when the playoffs begin. By the end of May, there is a chance that fans will be back in the arenas.
“We are hopeful that given the planned launch of the vaccine, which we are going in the other direction, it will be increasingly likely that there will be a return to home advantage,” Silver said. “That comes in May, June, July, which at this time our season is scheduled to end in mid-July, which by then there will really be a significant opportunity to have fans in our building.”
He added that if the vaccine release takes long enough for fans to make the playoffs isn’t a real possibility, a bubble environment is something the league would do.
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