NBA Eyes Expansion Teams Located Outside United States and Canada, Adam Silver Says

Scott Polacek@@ScottPolacekFeatured Columnist IVJune 7, 2024

Adam Glanzman/Getty Images

While it may not happen in the near future, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has international expansion on his mind.

“It’s not preordained that we will expand at this time, but I know there’s an enormous amount of interest out there,” Silver told reporters Thursday. “… At some point, we’d like to look outside the United States. In addition to Canada. This may not be the right moment to do that, but I’m thinking long term as well.”

Bobby Krivitsky @BobbyKrivitskyNBA commissioner Adam Silver addresses the potential and likelihood of future league expansion, detailing some of the questions they’re asking, their order of operations, first needing to complete their new media deals, and following the North Star of doing what’s best for the… pic.twitter.com/FpAJrFAVlX

The Toronto Raptors are the only NBA team outside of the United States, although the Memphis Grizzlies used to play in Vancouver.

This is not the first time Silver has brought up potentially expanding to another country. Jordan Daly of NBC Sports Boston noted he joined NBC Sports Boston’s broadcast of a Celtics game and discussed potentially having a team in Mexico.

“Mexico City is easy in terms of, I mean it’s high altitude, it’s 2,000 feet higher than Denver, so that affects the players a bit, but it’s a shorter flight to Mexico City from New York than it is to L.A., so … One day, I think that would be incredible to actually expand to a market like Mexico City,” he said.

He also discussed the league’s international appeal.

“In the meantime, we are playing in Paris in January again,” Silver said. “It is very much a global league, we got players from roughly 40 countries, over a quarter of the players were born outside of the United States, and especially now with digital media, streaming media, you guys know; I’m sure you get fan mail from 200-plus countries, that’s where our games are carried.”

The NBA announced last month that the San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers will face each other in two games in Paris next season. The Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic faced each other in Mexico City this season, and the league has hosted a number of preseason and regular-season contests in other countries.

Ultimately, expanding to Europe, Asia, Africa or somewhere in the Eastern Hemisphere would likely be too difficult given the travel concerns that would cause with a condensed 82-game season.

Unlike the idea of the NFL having a team in London or somewhere else where games are at least a week apart, there would be less rest and more travel with so many more games in the NBA.

However, having a team in Mexico in the Western Hemisphere would be feasible and perhaps something that happens at some point.

But Silver’s comments didn’t make it seem like it will happen anytime soon, even if he is thinking about it as he considers the future of the league.