progress is expected in March

Clippers, ” tanking », the WNBA strike, the return of NBC… During his press briefing on Saturday night, Adam Silver covered many topics, and he mentioned one of the topics that interests the media and fans the most: the NBA’s transition from 30 to 32 franchises. At the time of the NBA Cup, the head of the league promised that we would have information on this topic in 2026 and… it’s 2026.

“As far as the time frame, and I think I said this late last year when we were in Las Vegas, we’ll make decisions in 2026. To be fair to the cities, especially Seattle and Las Vegas, I’ve been very clear: I don’t want to screw up teams or make false promises to cities or mislead anybody.” he warns. “First we wanted to finalize the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and the new TV rights deals. That’s now done and now we can focus on that as a league.”

Important information: No franchises will be moved

According to Adam Silver, the NBA Board of Directors meets in March and there should be some progress. “At the Board of Governors meetings in March, we will continue discussions on the enlargement process. We will not vote at this March meeting, but it is likely that we will come out ready to take the next step, especially by starting discussions with stakeholders.” he continues, elaborating on that in passingno current franchise will be moved. This will therefore involve the creation of franchises out of nowhere.

As for whether the number of new franchises is fixed, he assures that nothing is set in stone.

“Expansion doesn’t have to be about two teams. Honestly, it shouldn’t be about any specific number of teams. The next logical step would be to say, ‘Okay, we’ve had these internal discussions, we’ve made decisions about which cities to prioritize and what the opportunity is, and now we need to go to market.'” he concludes. “I think that’s probably the most important step: figuring out who might be interested in owning a franchise in certain cities and what the value of that franchise would be. It also needs to be done in regards to possible conference realignment. Here’s the next step on that.”

Listening to him, it’s therefore likely that we’ll have to wait another decade for the NBA to expand…