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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.”
As for Seattle, there are two known bidders, but the group led by Kraken and Climate Pledge Arena owner Samantha Holloway has long been considered the leader. The offers, sources said, are substantially lower than what the bidding war for the Vegas franchise is driving, which could exceed $10 billion. It is Silver's job to raise that price. It could be argued that Silver's No. 1 job on a day-to-day basis is to increase the value of teams. He has shown to be excellent at it, and naturally this is what he's working on diligently.
As Silver mentioned, there is still discussion among current owners and the bid groups about the best place for a new arena. A vote on the three groups bidding on Las Vegas -- Nancy Walton Laurie and Bill Laurie; Steve Apostolopoulos and Marc Lasry; and Bill Foley and Jerry Colangelo -- could come soon, sources told Charania. The runner-up groups could then pivot to Seattle, where Kraken owner Samantha Holloway's group appears to be in pole position, with a valuation sources with knowledge of the process currently estimate to be around $6 billion.
Tom Dundon is in a standoff with the city of Portland regarding a renovation of the Moda Center and has used the expansion process and the threat of relocation for leverage in recent discussions with other owners and city officials, according to multiple ownership and industry sources. Though Silver has publicly stated that he'd consider relocating the Blazers as "a failure," Dundon's threat is real as long as Seattle and Vegas are being considered as NBA markets and Dundon has issues with his current arena. Still, expansion is far more likely than relocation.
Silver also cast doubt on the question marks of the Las Vegas arena situation. "In Las Vegas, it's not even clear what the site will be, let alone the arena yet," said Silver. "Therefore, it's a much longer timeline [compared to Seattle] before we can throw the ball up for NBA basketball."
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Sources who have known and worked with Silver for years have repeatedly told ESPN that they do not expect him to be swayed by public attention in this case, one way or another. As one source explained, if the league ignored evidence that implicated the Clippers, then the cover-up would become a story; and if the league sought punishment without evidence, then the overreach would become a story. The source said they had full confidence that Silver would "play it straight," based on the facts, as Silver has said he would do throughout the inquiry.
Silver declined to provide details on how or when teams such as the Raptors were informed about the associated risks of acquiring him. A source with direct knowledge of the situation said the NBA did not communicate with the Clippers in advance about the matter because they never requested guidance from the league office.
Silver did not address his role in the Thomas suspension and Engelbert was unavailable for comment. But sources familiar with the situation said Engelbert initially believed during the evaluation process that -- because no foul was called on the court against Thomas -- a follow-up suspension might be too steep of a discipline. Meanwhile, those same sources said Silver believed there was clear evidence of a flagrant foul, that he felt badly for Clark and told Engelbert she had to act.
The NBA anticipates launching a centralized local team broadcast for the 2027-28 season, Silver said, as it navigates a rocky local broadcast situation. Main Street Sports Group, which broadcast games locally for 13 NBA teams, stopped operations at the end of this season. That has left teams looking to a combination of over-the-air and streaming options to get on screens this upcoming season. Silver said the NBA will piecemeal a solution for the 2026-27 season and launch a local League Pass the next year, as it has long planned to do. It will look to sell the collective local rights for a number of teams. “We’ll cobble together a series of solutions for this season, but I feel good that we’ll have something on a national basis for the following year,” Silver said.
Silver was also asked about the potential expansion of the league to 32 teams. In March, the NBA’s board of governors approved a vote to explore bids and applicants for expansion teams exclusively in Las Vegas and Seattle. Silver said zeroing in on those cities was a show of intent and focus from the league. However, nothing has been decided. “If we were to expand, most likely in the 2028-29 season, I bet that’s when they would come into the league, but no decisions have been made yet,” Silver said. “What we’ve made clear to our teams, we’ve at least specifically said it’s Las Vegas and Seattle. “We’re looking at some other great cities that are interested in having franchises. We’re focused on those two right now. We could decide ultimately to go to new cities. One or two bids are being solicited at this time. The groups are coming together, talking to bankers, talking to the league office, and I think what we’ve said, in fairness to everyone, let’s make a decision by the end of this calendar year, at the latest.”
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Silver maintained that that the NBA could decide to add two, one or no teams at all at this juncture. “We’re currently looking at two teams, but what we’ve said is it’s possible we won’t expand at all, and we could expand to just one market. But we’re officially looking at both those markets right now,” Silver said. Silver also said that if the NBA expands by two to 32 teams, “we’ll want to likely even out the conferences, so there will be some movement then.”
As Silver detailed even further, the league’s internal data suggests that extended rest might be part of the problem rather than the solution. “On so-called load management, I think that the only place where we see an uptick in injuries is not towards the end of the season when guys have played more games,” Silver continued. “The only place we see upticks is after the All-Star break. … Whether it’s just correlation, or it turns out there’s causation, it may be because (players) are not getting appropriate load during those days they take off.
Two of the sources said that if Silver tried to administer punishment to the Clippers without clear evidence of guilt, other teams and owners could consider it a worrying precedent. "I respect Adam, and I don't think he's stupid," said one of the sources, who has worked closely with Silver through the years. "If Wachtell delivers the report that says, 'Well, we don't have it,' I don't think Adam is going to push it further."