NEW YORK (AP) — New Orleans guard Dejounte Murray was 11 years old when Seattle last had an NBA team. He grew up with hopes of being like Gary Payton, Ray Allen and Shawn Kemp, and even remembers a rookie who played for the SuperSonics named Kevin Durant.
It's been nearly two decades since those days ended. That said, Wednesday could provide incredibly real hope of a basketball revival for Seattle — and a new chapter in Las Vegas.
The NBA's board of
governors is expected to vote Wednesday on a plan that will bring the league one step closer to expansion. If the current owners give their approval, and all signs are that they will do so, the league will essentially begin the process of working with potential ownership groups who will aim to have franchises in Seattle and Las Vegas sometime in the next few years.
Assuming the vote passes, it will not be a done deal. But it won't be just a pipe dream anymore, either.
“It’s a basketball city, basketball culture, so it’s mandatory I think that they get it back over there,” said Murray, a Seattle native.
Added Orlando's Paolo Banchero, another Seattle native: “I think it’s been a long time coming for the city. I think everybody was pretty bummed out when they left. And since then it’s just been waiting and hoping that one day they will come back. I’m sure with the news, everybody’s excited. I know I’m excited for all the kids growing up because Seattle’s a really big basketball city.”
It is, and so is Las Vegas — which has become a major part of the NBA ecosystem even without a team.
The NBA's Summer League is held in Las Vegas each year and has become a can't-miss event for league executives, coaches, media, agents and even players who aren't taking part in the games. The championship round of the NBA Cup, the in-season tournament, has been held in Las Vegas as well. And the city used to play host to the occasional regular-season game; for example, in 1984, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar of the Los Angeles Lakers broke the league's career scoring record in a game against the Utah Jazz — who used Las Vegas for some of their home games at that time.
The idea of putting a franchise there might have seemed unlikely a couple decades ago. Not anymore, especially not with the NFL's Raiders, the NHL's Golden Knights and the WNBA's Aces all already there and with Major League Baseball on the way.
“I think Seattle and Las Vegas are two incredible cities,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in December, speaking about expansion while in Las Vegas for the NBA Cup.
Assuming owners want to expand the NBA past its 30-team footprint, there will be much to decide. On the short list: the expansion fee (expected to be at least $6 billion), the timeline for adding the clubs (2028-29 would almost certainly be the earliest this could happen) and how the Western Conference will be realigned (at least one team is likely to join the Eastern Conference).
Golden State coach Steve Kerr said the SuperSonics were “one of the iconic franchises in the NBA.” The team left in 2008 and became the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“I was shocked when the league left Seattle,” Kerr said. "Incredible fan base. Great basketball market. A ton of talent coming from Seattle. Top 10 media market. Incredible sports city. So, it was kind of shocking to all of us when the league left Seattle. And I think we all hoped it would be a lot sooner than 18, 19 years, whatever it’s going to be, before they got back in the league.
“They belong in that city, and a team belongs there,” he added. “Those fans deserve it.”
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AP Basketball Writer Brian Mahoney and AP Sports Writers Schuyler Dixon and Joe Reedy contributed.
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