As a guest on the sports network\u2019s “Pardon My Take\u201d and emphasizing the professional basketball league\u2019s commitment to Memphis, Silver said the Griz traveling to Nashville for a game or two each season could broaden the organization\u2019s fan base.<\/p>\n
“[Memphis] has been a great market historically for the NBA, and there is amazing history in that city and amazing culture,” Silver said on the “Pardon My Take” podcast. “There’s no reason why the Memphis Grizzlies can’t be successful.”<\/p>\n
Silver stressed that Grizzlies owner Robert Pera is committed to maintaining the NBA franchise in Memphis and that NBA players enjoy playing at the FedEx Forum. However, some players \u2014 including megastar LeBron James \u2014 complained recently that the West Tennessee city lacks high-level hotels and nightlife.<\/p>\n
ESPN reports Memphis has conducted training camp in Nashville the past two years. However, the Griz have never played a regular-season game at Bridgestone Arena.<\/p>\n
Of note, the NBA\u2019s San Antonio Spurs the past few seasons have hosted some “home” games in Austin, according to the sports network.<\/p>\n
Memphis\u2019 lease at the FedExForum expires in 2029. A $550 million renovation of the arena is planned via city and state funding, part of a greater effort that includes updates to the Simmons Liberty Bowl, at which the Memphis Tiger football team plays.<\/p>\n
ESPN reports the NBA is evaluating possible expansion franchises in Seattle and Las Vegas, adding Silver has stressed the past year the league has no desire to relocate any organizations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a guest on the sports network\u2019s “Pardon My Take\u201d and emphasizing the professional basketball league\u2019s commitment to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717671,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3795],"tags":[7,1148,294,293,177,4070,736,6,1615,9576],"class_list":{"0":"post-717670","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-memphis-grizzlies","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-fedexforum","10":"tag-grizzlies","11":"tag-memphis","12":"tag-memphis-grizzlies","13":"tag-memphisgrizzlies","14":"tag-men","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-seasons","17":"tag-professional-sports-leagues"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116465168796924025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717670"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717670\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}