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Q. I got another question that just came to came to mind, go play for the NBA expansion team in Las Vegas or play for Barcelona. Same contract, same money. 150 million deal. Hugo Gonzalez: I'll play for Las Vegas. Derrick White: You never know where life goes, you know? He could be 15 years down the line he's like, "Man, maybe I want to." Gonzalez: It’s not because I don't like Barcelona, I got a lot of family that supports Barcelona and they're really close to it and I really respect it. The point is like basically I've been in Real Madrid since I'm 11. So like they basically teaching me how to play basketball. So like as just as a sign of respect, not because I don't like Barcelona. I think Barcelona is a great team, a great organization.
The groups bidding roughly 9B-to-10B for an NBA team in Las Vegas -- and also targeting perhaps 2B-to-3B more for a new arena -- are wary about pivoting to Seattle if they lose out, potentially jeopardizing a Seattle expansion process that appears to have turned stagnant.
Up until now, the most public bid for a new Seattle franchise is the reported $6B offered by Kraken owner Samantha Holloway. Several sources have told SBJ that the NBA wants at least $7B or more -- and certainly won’t accept an offer half the size of Las Vegas’ roughly 12B-to-13B total package-- and that the league has believed failed bidders in Las Vegas might set their sights on Seattle as a fallback. But multiple sources close to the three Las Vegas groups made comments to SBJ this week such as “It’s hard -- no one likes Seattle” and “Seattle has some challenges” and “It’s no Vegas.”
Shreyas Laddha: Brice Sensabaugh on Walker Kessler: I saw him in Vegas and congratulated him on the contract... he's been having a great start to the season. He also said he's looking forward to facing him on Sunday.
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The Marc Lasry-Steve Apostolopoulos group that bid roughly 9B-to-9.5B for a Las Vegas NBA franchise has effectively dropped out of the expansion process, sources told SBJ on Friday, after informing the league that its desired price tag of $10B-plus was too high. According to multiple sources, the league had informed all bidders that the cost of the franchise would be rising to the $10B figure or above, and the Lasry-Apostolopoulos group responded by saying they weren’t padding their offer.
The development leaves just two bidders in play for the team: the Nancy Walton Laurie-Bill Laurie-Egon Durban conglomerate and the Bill Foley-Jerry Colangelo group. Sources close to one of the groups believe the NBA wants a bid closer to $11B –- plus about a $2B commitment to build a new arena -- and industry insiders told SBJ that the liquidity behind the Walton-Laurie-Durban bid makes them the front-runner.
Chris Haynes: Sources: Ownership group of Marc Lasry (former Bucks co-owner) & Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos remain in play for Las Vegas NBA Expansion bid. I’m also told Kenny Smith from “Inside The NBA” is part of the ownership group and has raised 20 percent of the bid.
Raheem Palmer: I can confirm this is 100% true. He was in Vegas for summer league with Amile who was coaching the summer league team. He also had a camp he was throwing. People want there to be beef with him and Jaylen but Tatum had absolutely nothing to do with this trade and was just as shocked as everyone else. Kalshi Hoops: Jayson Tatum says he had no idea the Celtics were trading Jaylen Brown and was surprised they traded him to Philly: "Bro we was in Vegas, I just got done playing pickup. Sham walked over. He hand me the towel. He like, 'Yo, put this over your face. Don't react. They just traded him (Jaylen).' I'm like, oh sh*t. I'm like, where? He said Philly. I said, you traded him down the street? So I was just as much caught off guard as the rest of the world.
On "The Pat McAfee Show," Silver cited Seattle and Las Vegas as two strong contenders. Then, Silver brought up Mexico City, which has more than 9 million residents. “Largest city in North America,” Silver said. “Huge basketball base.” The NBA already has a G League team, the Capitanes, in Mexico City, and it has been holding exhibition games there since 1992. “Shorter flight from New York to Mexico City than from New York to Los Angeles,” Silver said. “You could see how that could work in our league.” Silver added that there has been discussion about building a new arena in Mexico City. “That’s not in the immediate plans,” Silver said. “But down the road, I think there is real potential there.”
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The NBA is in the process of weighing bids from ownership groups who could control teams in the Las Vegas and Seattle markets. The NBA could begin playing in one of those markets as early as 2028. “We have been public about the fact that we are looking closely at Las Vegas and Seattle,” Silver said. “Las Vegas seems to have an insatiable appetite for sports and entertainment. Several groups now are thinking about building a brand-new arena in town. … Seattle has a great arena. It has a great NBA tradition there. So we are looking closely at returning to Seattle.”
“Twenty-two years ago, I walked into (former NBA commissioner) David Stern’s office in New York with Robert Sarver,” Kerr said before Tuesday’s preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers at T-Mobile Arena. “And he wanted to start an expansion team in Las Vegas, and that was his plan. So, I met Robert — I didn’t know him before that — (and) he asked me if I could introduce him to Stern, and we went into David Stern’s office, and David Stern said, ‘There’s no way we’re having a franchise in Las Vegas because of the gambling.’”
In the midst of answering a question about whether he could ever imagine playing an NBA game in Las Vegas, Kerr said he heard about initial efforts to place a team in the desert two decades ago. “Twenty-two years ago, I walked into (former NBA commissioner) David Stern’s office in New York with Robert Sarver,” Kerr said before Tuesday’s preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers at T-Mobile Arena. “And he wanted to start an expansion team in Las Vegas, and that was his plan. So, I met Robert — I didn’t know him before that — (and) he asked me if I could introduce him to Stern, and we went into David Stern’s office, and David Stern said, ‘There’s no way we’re having a franchise in Las Vegas because of the gambling.’”
Their fan base tends to break out in hives. Sorry, inside joke. Let’s start again. Their fan base tends to go zero-to-60 over the simplest things. After winning the 2025 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, the Charlotte Hornets’ team store commemorated the moment by selling championship T-shirts. There was a line out the door!