NBA interested in expansion, unlikely to shorten season
NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke to reporters before Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday in Oklahoma City. File Photo by Jim Ruymen/UPI | License Photo
June 6 (UPI) -- NBA team owners are interested in expansion and are expected to discuss the topic at a July meeting, commissioner Adam Silver told reporters.
Silver made the comments at his annual news conference before Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday in Oklahoma City.
"We have an owners' meeting in July in Las Vegas," Silver said. "It will be on the agenda to take the temperature of the room. We have committees that are already talking about it.
"But my sense is at that meeting, they're going to give direction to me and my colleagues at the league office that we should continue to explore it."
"The goal isn't necessarily to have a different Champion every year, it's to have... parity of opportunity."
Commissioner Adam Silver responds to the fact that the NBA will have it's seventh different Champion in seven seasons. pic.twitter.com/hiVOdRC6Ld— NBA TV (@NBATV) June 6, 2025
The NBA currently consists of 30 franchises, with 15 in the Eastern Conference and another 15 in the Western Conference.
The Charlotte Bobcats, who were rebranded as the Charlotte Hornets, became the NBA's newest team in 2004. The 21-year period since the Bobcats joined the league marks the longest time the NBA went without adding a new franchise. The NBA added six franchises between 1988 and 1995; the Hornets, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic, Minnesota Timberwolves, Toronto Raptors and Memphis Grizzlies.
"There's been no lack of interest," Silver said. "Certainly I've gotten a lot of unsolicited calls. I essentially have said to people from several different cities, we're just not engaging in that process right now. I want to be fair to everyone. So I don't want to have meeting with some and not others.
"So if we were to say yes, we're now going to move into a more formal exploratory phase, we would take those meetings and in addition likely we would engage with outside advisors who would look at markets, look at economic opportunities and media opportunities, et cetera."
Silver said the league needs to "figure out something" when it comes to aligning expansion with broadcast partners and in light of a "transition in media."
"There's been disruption because there's been a dramatic decline in traditional television," Silver said. "The streaming services, which view themselves as national and global, haven't really localized in a way yet to do team-specific deals. But I think we're going to see that.
"As I said, we will be fine because I have no doubt in terms of the value of that content."
Silver said he didn't see the benefit of eliminating games from the schedule. but would be interested in potentially starting the season earlier and ending it later.
"Money's part of it, there's no question about it," Silver said. "We're a business. Having said that, I don't really see the benefit to reducing the number of games.
"People used to say you should reduce the number of games because it will lead to a reduction in a number of injuries. We have absolutely no data to suggest that. If that were the case, you would think you have more injuries in April than October. We don't see that. Or you would think you'd see more injuries in the playoffs than you do in the regular season. We don't see that either.
"Another way of looking at the length of the season, if you think in terms of serving the fans, it's more opportunity for fans to go to games and to watch games."
The commissioner also discussed the series between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers, league parity, the length of the season and potential changes to the All-Star Game format, among other topics.
Silver said that the NBA is "experimenting internally with different formats," when asked about a potential matchup between U.S. players and global talent instead of the typical All-Star Game matchups.
"I don't think a straight-up USA versus World makes sense," Silver said. "That's not what they did in the NHL either. There probably will be some different teams we form. Whether it's some regional basis for how we combine certain groups of players, because USA players, who I talked about earlier, international is 30% of the league, American players are still 70% of the league.
"I think we can play off that nationalism."
The Pacers (1-0) will battle the Thunder (0-1) in Game 2 of the NBA Finals at 8 p.m. EDT Sunday in Oklahoma City. The matchup will air on ABC.
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