Adam Silver: Decision on NBA expansion will be made in 2026 - ESPN

LAS VEGAS — For the first time, NBA commissioner Adam Silver laid out a definitive timeline for domestic expansion, saying a decision would be made on whether to proceed sometime in 2026.

«I'd say in terms of domestic expansion, that is something we're continuing to look at,» Silver said at a news conference before the NBA Cup final between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday night. «It's not a secret we're looking at this market in Las Vegas. We are looking at Seattle. We've looked at other markets, as well. I'd say I want to be sensitive there about this notion that we're somehow teasing these markets, because I know we've been talking about it for a while.

»As I've said before, domestic expansion, as opposed to doing a new league in Europe, is selling equity in this current league. If you own 1/30 of this league, now you own 1/32 if you add two teams. So it's a much more difficult economic analysis. In many ways, it requires predicting the future.

«I think now we're in the process of working with our teams and gauging the level of interest and having a better understanding of what the economics would be on the ground for those particular teams and what a pro forma would look like for them, and then sometime in 2026 we'll make a determination.»

The topic of expansion has been lingering for five years, since Silver first acknowledged the possibility in a news conference ahead of the 2020-21 season. But like in that news conference, when Silver changed his public stance for the first time, he had never announced a timeline for a decision to be made until now.

And, if the league chooses to move forward with expansion, the heavy favorites to land teams are Seattle and Las Vegas — the former having been