Overview
- Commissioner Adam Silver said the league will make a determination sometime in 2026 on whether to add two teams, marking the most concrete timeline yet.
- Las Vegas and Seattle were identified as the primary markets under consideration, with Silver citing Vegas’s long Summer League and NBA Cup presence and Seattle’s strong legacy and infrastructure.
- Silver emphasized that domestic expansion sells equity in the current league, reducing existing owners’ stakes from 1/30 to 1/32, so the league is building pro forma models with teams before any vote.
- The NBA Cup final, held in Las Vegas to date, could rotate to other sites next, with Silver noting interest in staging the championship at storied college arenas as semifinals move to top seeds’ home floors.
- Silver said the NBA continues to explore a Europe project with FIBA and has engaged bankers including JP Morgan and Raine, with more substantive talks expected early next year.