Silver: NBA expansion being considered, but not on 'front burner'

NBA commissioner Adam Silver announced Monday that while the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has led the league to think more about expansion, no new teams are imminent.

"I think I've always said that it's sort of the manifest destiny of the league that you expand at some point," Silver told reporters, including ESPN's Tim Bontemps. "I'd say it's caused us to maybe dust off some of the analyses on the economic and competitive impacts of expansion. We've been putting a little bit more time into it than we were pre-pandemic. But certainly not to the point that expansion is on the front burner."

The NBA last expanded in 2004 when it added its 30th franchise in Charlotte. The expansion fee for that team was $300 million, and the current fee has been estimated at more than $1 billion.

Former NBA market Seattle has been widely speculated as an expansion location since the Sonics left in 2008, while other cities such as Louisville, Kansas City, and Las Vegas have been linked at various times.

Silver, however, insisted the league's focus is on parity and the competitiveness of existing teams, which expansion has a tendency to water down.

"We're very appreciative of the markets that have indicated an interest in having an NBA team," Silver said. "One of the issues for the league office - and this comes up all the time in terms of competitiveness - it's not a secret that we don't have 30 competitive teams at any given time right now when you go into the season, measured by likelihood of ability to win a championship.

"One of our focuses as the league office is always on how do you create better competition. So that's one of the things that we continue to think about as we consider expansion. ... It's an economic issue and it's a competitive issue for us. So it's one that we'll continue to study, but we're spending a little bit more time on it than we were pre-pandemic."