It's Finally Happening - We're Reportedly Close To The NBA Expanding With Seattle And Vegas Landing Teams
[Canzano] - • A sitting team president of an NBA franchise told me it’s unlikely that the league’s owners would allow the Trail Blazers to relocate to Seattle after a potential sale. “That’s a no-go,” he said. The prevailing sentiment is that Seattle and Las Vegas have already been unofficially earmarked for NBA expansion and the current owners would prefer to avoid cannibalizing what would be a windfall of $6 billion in combined expansion fees.
Oh hell yes. I'm all for expansion, especially getting a Vegas team in the league. Now there was always a debate with expansion in the NBA because of the locations involved. Louisville was a finalist when the Grizzlies moved to Memphis. Seattle has always been a spot obviously after losing the Sonics. Vegas should have sports in every league as a no-brainer.
Speaking of Seattle. You have to go back to the Sonics. I don't care if they are an expansion team, it's like the Browns when they returned. I want all the old jerseys too.
Steve DiPaola. Getty Images.
Advertisement
Otto Greule Jr. Getty Images.That second one might be peak 90s jerseys too. The true golden era of jerseys. Look at these bad boys:
By the way my answer to that tweet is: Raptors (no-brainer No. 1 answer), Grizzlies and Suns. Nuggets and Wolves a closer runner-up.
Anyways, back to the expansion. This is all based on Canzano's report of the Paul Allen trust. Basically the Blazers have to be sold but they won't be moved to Seattle. That's because it seems like Seattle and Vegas will be expansion teams after the media rights deal expires in 2024. It makes sense. There's enough talent to expand and it gets the league to 32 teams. Now you'd have to move two teams to the East - probably New Orleans and Memphis, maybe Minnesota. Those are the only three that make sense.
That is if Silver decides to even keep conferences. Adam Silver is not afraid to tinker. He might get rid of conferences. He's for sure going to add a mid-season tournament at some point. He's going to do whatever to keep tinkering. All I know is Vegas needs more stuff. They should host Super Bowls, NCAA Final Fours, college football title games, etc. It makes too much sense.
All that said, I don't want the Blazers to move. I'm a man of tradition. It's why I hated the Sonics moving. They were part of my childhood. The Blazers have history. They can't become the Oklahoma City Thunder part 2. I want to see the red, black and white and remember Brandon Roy, Greg Oden, Dame, the Sheed-era team, etc.
Now let's make this official and get on with an expansion draft because drafts are awesome. I want mock expansion drafts. I want snake expansion draft topics on Dog Walk. Give me all the draft talk.