NBA owners are looking for partners.
In a sense, the National Basketball Association is dating, trying to figure out whether the people the NBA owners are seeing are a right fit for the league if they decide to take the next step and expand. There was some silly buzz in some corners of the basketball media that the league isn’t getting enough people to date in Seattle and that might be a major problem in putting an expansion team in Seattle as there just seems to be one interested party while there are a number of people dating the league in Las Vegas. But the NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has assured someone or some people in the basketball media that all is well and good in Seattle and that there is more than one group courting the NBA. “Most of the groups that are interested have not been public. So I wouldn’t conclude that because there aren’t other public groups coming forward, that therefore there isn’t other interest in Seattle. There is,” said Silver. “I think Seattle, we had an incredibly successful Sonics team there for years. It’s an amazing market. We do a lot of business with Amazon and Microsoft. It’s probably the A.I. capital of the world right now.” The only public date the NBA has had is with the ownership of the National Hockey League’s Seattle Kraken franchise, a group that runs the only indoor sports venue suitable for basketball in Seattle.
In Las Vegas, Bill Foley, the owner of the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights wants an NBA franchise to add to his portfolio. Jerry Colangelo, who once was part of the Phoenix Suns ownership group and a long time NBA power broker, wants a Las Vegas team. Magic Johnson wants an NBA Las Vegas team as does Bob Iger, the former Disney head. NBA expansion is coming.
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