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As the NBA Summer League prepares to return to Las Vegas for its 22nd year, President Warren LeGarie says the excitement surrounding the event remains as strong as ever. Speaking with Vegas Sports Today ahead of the 2026 NBA Summer League, LeGarie reflected on what continues to make the annual showcase special for basketball fans around the world. “I’m most excited that it’s almost here,” LeGarie said. “Summer League, for me, is still filled with hope, possibilities, and optimism. You get to see young players in their first NBA moments and find out if all the hype was worth it. More importantly, you get to see who they are as people.”
While stopping short of making any official announcements, LeGarie encouraged fans to continue supporting Summer League as a way of demonstrating the city’s passion for professional basketball. “I believe it’s true,” LeGarie said when asked about expansion rumors. “Buy tickets, come to the gym, and prove to the NBA that this is an NBA city.” LeGarie referenced comments previously made by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who has described Summer League as the league’s “31st franchise” because of its importance to the basketball ecosystem.
With anticipation building for another Summer League and continued excitement surrounding a potential NBA expansion team, LeGarie believes Las Vegas remains at the center of the basketball world each summer. “This is your first way of proving to the NBA that this is what we clearly want,” LeGarie said. “Words are cheap. Action is what counts.”
Remember LeBron James' "Decision" back in 2010? That was Rose, James' agent at the time, and Worldwide Wes. Carmelo Anthony's trade from the Denver Nuggets to the Knicks in 2011? Leon and Wes. Dolan had a good relationship with both men during Anthony's seven seasons in New York and admired the loyalty they seemed to have with clients. Dolan is a lot of things. Irascible. Unpredictable. Meddlesome. But he's also loyal. So when he went to replace Jackson in 2019, he kept coming back to the idea of Rose and Wesley -- two men he knew could handle the pressure cooker of New York and identify the type of players who could thrive in that environment, too. But maybe even more importantly, he trusted them to do it and largely allowed them to operate without interference. Those who know Dolan best say he'd simply learned from his past that ownership involvement isn't always productive. Others suggest his focus was split between the Knicks and building the Sphere in Las Vegas.
Adam Silver on flopping: "When we put the flopping rule in place, there was what I would call egregious flopping. Players are taught to sell the call where there's actually a foul, but they're trying to draw the officials' attention. We're going to look in the offseason. We have a 2 day competition committee meeting in Vegas around the summer league, will watch 1000 plays literally over 2 days and see if we should set that line in a different place"
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Gary Payton unbothered by potential snags for NBA returning SuperSonics in expansion plan. “There’s a lot of talk. The government over there in Seattle is going to be fine. Seattle will be back with Las Vegas, so I’m not really worried about none of what they’re talking about. We’ll work it all out. There’s nothing that’s going to snag them. The ownership with Tod Leiweke and all them, we’re going to be fine. I’m just excited for them to get back. We should’ve never lost it but we’re gonna be back.”
Mike Vorkunov: NBA commissioner Adam Silver said the league is speaking with multiple groups in Las Vegas and Seattle about expansion to those cities. He says the board intends to make a decision by the end of 2026. He adds: "It’s not a foregone conclusion, either in one city or both cities."
And for the last few years at NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, I was told I was not welcome to cover Pacers practice between games (while another reporter did). Then, they only made one player available postgame despite being required to make two. I cannot definitively say whether those Pacers circumstances influenced the Fever’s decision. What I can say is that this latest action follows a pattern that has made it increasingly difficult for an independent journalist to provide the type of on-the-ground coverage that readers deserve.
Texas billionaire Tilman Fertitta has long pursued a merger of his sprawling casino and restaurant business with Nevada’s iconic Caesars Entertainment. He’s finally pulling it off. Fertitta Entertainment, the Houston company that owns Las Vegas’ Golden Nugget, restaurant giant Landry’s and chains like Rainforest Cafe and Morton’s, is acquiring Caesars in a $17.6 billion deal that combines two of the nation’s largest casino, hotel and restaurant empires.
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Seattle and Las Vegas are already getting teams, so there’s nowhere else to go. First of all, the league is only exploring expansion. I assume it will come to fruition, but there are plenty of good reasons to pump the brakes, and some owners are going to remain unconvinced that it’s smart to further divide the pie with two more teams. Even if the cities of emeralds and sin get two teams, there are still plenty of large markets that want to get in the game. Nashville and Austin are the two most obvious. The proximity of Austin to San Antonio presents a challenge, but the easy geography and access to an exploding economy may be too much for the rest of the owners to ignore. If the door is even cracked slightly, you’d have to think the Dallas-bred Dundon would leap at the chance to get into his home state’s capital city. Beyond those two, though: Kansas City, San Diego and Vancouver, B.C. make varying degrees of sense. And don’t forget Silver’s desire to push the league into Mexico City someday. That likely won’t be via expansion if the league is sitting at 32 teams.
Soon after he was elected president of the National Basketball Players Association, Fred VanVleet, the stocky point guard of the Houston Rockets, walked to the front of a Las Vegas ballroom. It was July 2025, a few weeks removed from the Oklahoma City Thunder winning the NBA Finals, yet the ensuing season was already under way. Rookies had been drafted. Developmental prospects had come to Vegas for exhibition games. And with them had arrived a basketball establishment—coaches, executives, team owners—accustomed to flying high. Revenues were up. A collective-bargaining agreement was in place. The new media deal was kicking in. Nothing, it seemed, could stop the juggernaut inspired by James Naismith and his peach baskets back in 1891. Yet when VanVleet addressed the room in Las Vegas, his first words were a warning. “Don’t f--- up the game,” he said.
The NBA has received “signs of interest from multiple investor groups for new teams in Las Vegas and Seattle that the league plans to sell for as much” as $10B, according to sources cited by BLOOMBERG NEWS. The sources said that early indications show Las Vegas is “drawing more interest than Seattle.” A source said that while “no formal bids have been submitted, there’s been substantial outreach from investors.”
A new proposal for the future home of a Las Vegas NBA franchise is setting its sights on the south Strip. According to a release shared Monday, the proposed “Diamond Arena” would be located at the northeast corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and Four Seasons Drive, directly across from Mandalay Bay. The project will feature a 21,212-seat arena design with an entrance directly on the Las Vegas Strip within walking distance to more than 20,000 hotel rooms. “This isn’t just another arena project—it’s a global stage for the NBA,” said Tom Letizia, a spokesman for the Diamond Arena. “The league is looking for a long-term home in Las Vegas, and this site delivers everything needed to define the future.” This comes after the NBA Board of Governors voted to move forward with the bidding process for possible expansion teams in Las Vegas and Seattle. The “Diamond Arena” is the latest proposed site for a future franchise. “It’s moving very quickly,” Letizia said. “But Las Vegas has earned the right to have an NBA franchise in this city.”
