NBA doesn’t appear close to expanding into Las Vegas or anywhere else

The Milwaukee Bucks and Oklahoma City Thunder played before a sell-out crowd in the NBA Cup championship game Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena, but don’t expect to see an expansion team in Las Vegas anytime soon.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver, speaking before the Bucks defeated the Thunder, said the league is still in the early phases of the expansion process. He added that a committee has yet to be formed to decide whether the league will look to expand from its current 30 teams.

If the league were to expand, Silver previously said that adding two teams would make sense, with Las Vegas and Seattle among the favorites. He said Tuesday that several U.S. cities are interested in landing an expansion team.

Three parties have expressed interest in owning a team in Las Vegas — the Oak View Group, LVXP and Golden Knights owner Bill Foley.

”We’ve spent time modeling different approaches to expansion, taking a general look at available cities,” Silver said. “We haven’t invited applications yet, and we are not having discussions with specific groups right now, including here in Las Vegas.”

Pros and cons

When an expansion committee is formed, it will weigh the pros and cons of adding new markets, Silver said.

“The pitfalls are … dilution of talent and dilution of economics,” he said. “In terms of the television deal and obviously our partners, we also use money we generate through our revenue to invest in initiatives — the WNBA, the G League — and opportunities in other places in the world. I also want to make sure that if we expand, that those teams can be equally competitive.”

There is no specific timeline for when the NBA will form the expansion committee, which also would look at potential relocation of teams, Silver said. He added that he isn’t aware of any franchises looking to relocate.

“Yes (potential relocation will be reviewed), with the caveat that the league does not relocate teams,” Silver said. “There’s a process outlined in the NBA constitution for teams to apply to the league, in respects to their partners, that they have the desire to relocate.”

Players love Las Vegas

Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, the NBA Cup MVP, said he would love to see Las Vegas land an expansion team. Antetokounmpo first played in Las Vegas during the NBA Summer League in 2014 and has played in the NBA Cup here the past two seasons.

“It’s fun playing in Vegas,” he said after Tuesday’s game, played before an announced crowd of 18,519. “The atmosphere is incredible.”

Antetokounmpo’s affinity for Las Vegas goes beyond basketball.

“I’m able to get some In-N-Out Burger whenever I come here … so I love it,” he said.

Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander agreed with Antetokounmpo, saying Las Vegas is a basketball city and that it would be fitting for an NBA team to play here.

“We can feel the basketball culture in Vegas as players when we come,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “I think it’s only a matter of time. The city really embraces basketball.”

‘Wonderful market’

Outspoken sports media personality Stephen A. Smith is known for his hot takes on ESPN, but he said Las Vegas being a lock for an expansion team is not one of his controversial viewpoints.

“I think it will be a wonderful market,” Smith told the Review-Journal. “Because of the advent of sports gaming, the concerns that they (NBA) once had are no longer an excuse. There’s an NFL team here, there’s a (MLB) baseball team on the way here, and because of that I think that the NBA definitely should strongly consider, which I think they are, expansion.”

Smith also said Seattle deserves an expansion team as much as Las Vegas does. The Seattle SuperSonics relocated to Oklahoma City in 2008.

“But I also think Vegas is Vegas, and in this modern-day era, Sin City definitely should have an NBA squad here, no doubt about it,” he said.

Contact Mick Akers at makers@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2920. Follow @mickakers on X.