After nearly a decade of speculation, it has been confirmed that talks setting up two new NBA teams will soon be underway.
Expansion will be a huge shake-up with massive consequences, and not everyone is excited about it, writes Rant Sport’s Loki de Pontes.
The report
On March 16, Shams Charania went on ESPN to report that the NBA’s Board of Governors will soon hold a vote on whether to expand the league to Seattle and Las Vegas. These teams would be added as soon as 2028.
According to Charania, the majority of owners are currently supportive of expansion and view it as an exciting opportunity for the league’s future.
This will come as amazing news to Seattle basketball fans in particular, who had their Supersonics transported to Oklahoma City in 2008.
Within 20 years, they will have their local franchise back and will be competing in the best basketball league in the world.
Not everyone is so excited, though.
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Diverging opinions
While most media members and journalists have come out in favour of the proposal, some have argued its merits, particularly regarding tanking.
Bill Simmons, founder of the Ringer, doesn’t like the idea. He sees the addition of two new teams, who would undoubtedly need time to build their rosters, as a downgrade in quality.
He believes this would only add to the tanking issue, as there’s a good chance Las Vegas and Seattle would be rebuilding for at least a couple of seasons.
This would bring it to 11 teams losing on purpose, something Simmons is very much against.
“This is a money grab. This is going to make the league worse,” he said.
Stephen A. Smith debated this exact issue on ESPN. In contrast, he believes that adding new teams will improve the product.
His argument centres around the fact that prospects are eager to prove their worth and fight for their spot in the league, and adding two new teams would give these players opportunities.
In contrast, many older players on bad teams just earn paychecks and go about their day. This lack of passion is something Stephen A. dislikes, and the hope is that young squads on expansion teams will replace them.
“Hell yeah, I think that would be good for the league.”
My take
I see the merits in both arguments.
The tanking issue is a problem. As a fan of European sports, I find the whole idea of intentionally losing utterly bizarre.
Unless the draft lottery system is dramatically altered, chances are extremely high that both expansion teams would be tanking for their first few seasons. Even if one of them makes the playoffs, another team would just replace them at the bottom.
Still, the prospect of expansion is enticing. There are so many talented players struggling to get contracts, which would be much less of an issue if there were two more teams in the league.
As Stephen A. says, the opportunity for young players to prove themselves on these untested rosters is amazing. But whether these teams will actually prioritise youth development is impossible to judge.
It seems that the NBA’s expansion is inevitable. Whether it will be good for basketball is another question.
I’ll choose to be cautiously optimistic.
