Nobody cares anymore?...Seems the COVID recession has spurred renewed expansion talk, and Seattle is said to be first in line
“I think I’ve always said that it’s sort of the manifest destiny of the league that you expand at some point,” Silver said during a preseason press conference, per ESPN’s Tim Bontemps. “I’d say it’s caused us to maybe dust off some of the analyses on the economic and competitive impacts of expansion. We’ve been putting a little bit more time into it than we were pre-pandemic. But certainly not to the point that expansion is on the front burner.”
Bontemps
“The NBA hasn’t added a team since it expanded to 30 by agreeing to add the Charlotte Hornets — then Bobcats — in 2002 (they began play in 2004). Should the league choose to expand, Seattle would likely be first in line. Seattle nearly 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.”