Adam Silver On Expansion: NBA Continue Exploring But ‘Nothing Predetermined’

While young players are getting a chance to play at the Summer League in Las Vegas, the NBA’s board of governors are taking the opportunity to meet and discuss certain topics like expansion. This Tuesday, for example, the dialogue was directed over potential franchise additions to the league. 

However, no agreement was reached, only the fact that they will continue to research. “A lot of analysis still needs to be done and nothing’s been predetermined one way or another, and without any specific timeline,” Adam Silver started out. “We’re going to be as thorough as possible and look at all the potential issues.”

The executive revealed that the process “will be on the agenda to take the temperature of the room,” and led by two subcommittees of the league’s governors. The first is the advisory finance committee, and the second is the audit and strategy committee, focused mostly on financial elements.

Silver described the meeting’s tone as full of “curiosity” by the governors. “A consensus quickly formed that the league office should do the work,” he told the press. “And work with these particular committees and the board and present that analysis.”

Even though the conversation has been moving closer than ever towards forming a new club in the NBA, described by the Commissioner as a “a significant step,” he did also say that this is “really day one,” in the sense that the governors barely had their first official meeting on the matter.

“We’re now engaging in this in-depth analysis, something we weren’t prepared to do before,” Silver admitted. “But beyond that, as I said, it’s really day one of that analysis. In terms of price, potential timeline — too early to say. And again, I think that also assumes the outcome of this analysis. It is truly a complicated issue.”

According to the executive, there are downsides to adding new franchises. “We would be malpracticing if we didn’t figure out how local regional television is going to work before expanding,” he explained. “The notion that we would hand over a team into a city where we’re not currently operating and say, ‘You’re going to have to figure out how you’re going to distribute your games to your local fans’ doesn’t make sense.”