The NBA is not going to roll the dice on Las Vegas — and Seattle, after all. The cities of Las Vegas and Seattle seem to be great expansion locations for the NBA, but that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon. It did look like it was finally going to happen when a report on Wednesday by Willie Ramirez of the Associated Press said that the NBA was on the verge of announcing expansion plans for the aforementioned cities.
However, Ramirez would later delete the tweet that contained his report, a move that can be interpreted as a sign that there was really no plan at the moment for the NBA to expand. Furthermore, Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal refuted the earlier report by Ramirez.
Despite a report last night stating so, there is no imminent NBA expansion announcement in the works, per source. #nba #vegas #seattle
— Mick Akers (@mickakers) September 7, 2022
Las Vegas has become a hotbed for professional sports franchises. The city is the home of some of the newest pro teams in the United States. The NHL introduced the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017-2018 NHL season; the WNBA brought the Las Vegas Aces to Sin City in 2018; while the NFL saw the Oakland Raiders move to the city to become the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020.
Of the four major pro sports organizations in the US, only the NBA and the MLB have yet to have a franchise in Las Vegas, although there have also been rumors of the Oakland Athletics moving the team to Vegas.
As for Seattle, every NBA fan knows that it used to be the home of the Seattle Supersonics. Getting an NBA team back to the city will be a welcome development for NBA fans.
With the sports betting business booming in the US, the allure to have a team in Las Vegas will always be there for the NBA.
