Sonics return could be closer as NBA expansion talks coming this summer

Tim Booth, The Seattle Times on May 13, 2025

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SEATTLE — NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday he expects discussion about expansion to be on the agenda for the next meeting of the league’s owners this summer.

Speaking on SiriusXM NBA Radio, Silver was asked how the view of expansion has progressed in the nearly eight weeks since the last meeting of the Board of Governors in New York when the sale of the Boston Celtics had just been agreed upon but had yet to undergo a review by the league.

Silver said there’s been an opportunity for the league to look at and feel confident in the plans for the Celtics sale which now could lead to advancing the discussions on expansion.

“I think at this point, we have an NBA board meeting in July in Las Vegas and my sense is (expansion) will be on the agenda to discuss with full ownership now for the 30 teams to get directly the existing owners views on potential expansion and how we would begin furthering the study of all the implications,” Silver said.

The sale of the Celtics had previously slowed the expected timeline for the league to discuss expansion after Silver said in September 2024 he believed the owners would begin examination of the process sometime during the 2024-25 season.

During the league’s Board of Governors meeting in March, Silver declined to put a timeline on the expansion discussion. Silver had hinted at the summer timeline last month during an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show.

Silver’s comments came about an hour before the estate of Paul Allen announced it would begin a formal process for selling the Portland Trail Blazers, a process expected to continue into the next NBA season. While it could become another roadblock in the expansion talks, the Trail Blazers’ place in the NBA marketplace means it likely won’t have the same impact — or potentially cause the same delays — as the sale of the Celtics.

In late 2024, Sportico valued the Trail Blazers at $3.6 billion, which ranked 23rd in the league, while the Celtics sale came at a valuation of $6.1 billion for the franchise. The final number on the Celtics sale was far more impactful to a likely expansion fee being asked for any new team than what the final sale price ends up being for the Trail Blazers.

In Tuesday’s interview, Silver mentioned concerns about the dilution of talent and the economic impacts of potentially adding two teams, as he has in the past. He also said the “precise timing” of how expansion could happen still needs to be worked on.

But he did make note again of the two markets regularly mentioned when expansion talk comes up.

“Look, obviously, I know there’s tremendous interest in Seattle. I know there’s tremendous interest in Las Vegas and several other cities as well, whether I’ve read about the interest or have heard indirectly from others,” Silver said. “Just to be clear, we haven’t begun any sort of process. So even to extent cities have reached out we said, ‘Thank you for your interest, but we’re not ready to take meetings yet and have more in-depth discussions.’ We will have that opportunity early summer again to talk to all the different ownership groups in the NBA and get a sense.”