The first steps in the NBA growing by two have reportedly taken place.
After several reports surfaced that the league would be voting on whether or not it should pursue opportunities to expand to two major cities — Las Vegas and Seattle — ESPN‘s Shams Charania broke the news Wednesday that the motion has been approved.
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Expansion to Vegas and the Pacific Northwest would bring the NBA to 32 teams and likely cause some reshuffling of the conferences. But with the amount of money the league stands to make from it, it’s hard to imagine it won’t eventually take place.
Paris, FRANCE; NBA commissioner Adam Silver speaks before the Paris Games 2025 NBA basketball game between the San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers at Accor Arena.Mandatory Credit: Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters via Imagn Images
(Mandatory Credit: Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters via Imagn Images)NBA votes to explore expansion bids
Taking to X this morning, Charania shared that the league has taken the next step in adding two more franchises.
“Breaking: The NBA’s Board of Governors has approved a vote for the league to explore bids and applicants for expansion teams exclusively in Las Vegas and Seattle, sources tell ESPN,” Shams reported. “A bidding process is expected to generate offers in the $7-10 billion range for each team.”
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League expansion would likely mean the return of the Seattle SuperSonics who were beloved throughout the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s — and even won a championship in 1978 led by the likes of Gus Williams, Hall of Famer Dennis Johnson and “Downtown” Freddie Brown.
But that doesn’t mean that everybody is on board with the NBA growing beyond the 30 teams it already has…
Bill Simmons on NBA expansion: ‘This is going to make the league worse’
Taking to his self-titled podcast last week, The Ringer’s Bill Simmons criticized the league’s potential expansion over tanking concerns. Going as far as calling it a “money grab.”
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“We have nine teams that don’t give a s—t right now in a 30-team league. The last thing we need to do is add two more teams that don’t give a s—t,” Simmons argued. “They either need to fix the don’t give a s—t part about the 82-game season, or they need to relocate two teams and do that as an expansion.”
“As somebody who loves basketball, I cannot accept two expansion teams and having 11 tanking teams three seasons from now instead of nine. I just don’t see how that’s a good product. I don’t see how that helps anybody,” he continued.
“If they do this, it’s a money grab. And they could say it’s like, ‘more jobs for everybody!’ OK, cool. This is a money grab. This is going to make the league worse. I will plant my flag in that.”
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Simmons’ thoughts aren’t invalid, and there are definitely some downsides that can come with expansion. But will those be enough to outweigh potentially adding upwards of $20 billion to the league for Adam Silver and the NBA’s owners?
This story was originally published by The Spun on Mar 25, 2026, where it first appeared in the NBA section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.