NBA commissioner Silver: Exploring expansion next on agenda - ESPN

BOSTON — With the league already having secured a new collective bargaining agreement last summer and currently finalizing new media rights deals, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said its next order of business will be exploring expansion beyond 30 teams.

«It's not preordained that we will expand this time, but I know there's an enormous amount of interest out there,» Silver said during his annual NBA Finals news conference before Game 1 between the Dallas Mavericks and Boston Celtics on Thursday. «And to me, yes, there are wealthy individuals, institutions that would like to invest and buy NBA teams, but I think it's on the league to look holistically because there is the dilution, of course.»

The NBA has not expanded since 2004, when it added a team in Charlotte two years after the Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans. In the decades that have followed, the average team valuation has skyrocketed from the hundreds of million dollars range to multibillions.

Silver cited a concern that adding two teams could lead to a talent dip leaguewide, with approximately 35 individuals added to the player pool.

«I feel great about where the talent is right now in the league, but those players have to come from somewhere,» Silver said.

The commissioner also discussed the need to find which markets could do the most to «grow the game.» While Silver has referenced Seattle and Las Vegas as potential new host cities in the past, he said those sites are not a given, either.

«At some point, we'd like to look outside the United States, in addition to Canada,» Silver said. «This may not be the right moment to do that, but I'm thinking long term, as well.»

Silver said the league hopes to finish up its new media rights agreements in the