Basketball fans in the Pacific Northwest are eagerly awaiting any movement on potential NBA expansion that would hopefully come with the return of a Seattle Sonics franchise.

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While there still isn’t any movement there, there was a small update Tuesday from NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who spoke about when expansion will likely be discussed next during a conversation with SiriusXM NBA Radio.

“I think at this point we have a NBA board meeting in July in Las Vegas, and my sense is (expansion) will be on the agenda,” Silver said.

“Expansion I think over time makes sense, as to precise timing I think we still need to work on that.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver talks to @TermineRadio, @Jumpshot8 & Ryan McDonough about the latest on expansion pic.twitter.com/qx6c6MKA4Q

— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) May 13, 2025

At that board meeting, ownership members of all 30 teams will be present, and Silver said it will allow the NBA “to get directly the existing owners’ views on potential expansion and how we would begin furthering the study of all the implications.”

Atop the list of implications is dilution should the 30-team league go up to as many as 32 franchises – in two senses.

“I’ve said before, there’s an impact on dilution of talent,” Silver said. “There’s of course an economic impact in that presumably if we were to expand let’s say an even number of teams, two teams, it means there’s then a division of our media deals by two additional partners, etc. I mean, that’s just math. That’s something we have to look at as well.”

As far as cities that could be involved, Silver again mentioned Seattle and Las Vegas by name. But, as is usually the case, he was cautious not to put the cart before the horse.

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“Obviously I know there’s tremendous interest in Seattle, I know there’s tremendous interest in Las Vegas, several other cities as well whether I’ve read about the interest or have heard indirectly from others,” Silver said.

“Just to be clear, we haven’t begun any sort of process, so even to the extent cities have reached out we’ve said, ‘Thank you for your interest but we’re not ready to take meetings yet and have more in-depth discussions.’ But we will have that opportunity early this summer to talk to all the different ownership groups in the NBA and get a sense.”

Silver’s parting message on the subject was hopeful about expansion, but maybe not as hopeful for those in Seattle when it comes to a timeline.

“I’ll lastly say expansion I think over time makes sense,” he said. “As to precise timing, I think we still need to work on that.”

Precisely, the last time the Seattle Sonics took the court was 17 years ago.

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