The NBA Vote That Could Finally Bring the Sonics Back to Seattle This Year
After nearly two decades of waiting, Seattle might finally get its NBA team back. The league's Board of Governors is expected to vote this week on bringing expansion franchises to Seattle and Las Vegas, and according to insiders, it sounds like a done deal.
"I think it's going to pass with overwhelming support," Sports Illustrated senior writer and NBA on NBC contributor Chris Mannix told Seattle Sports' Bump and Stacy on Tuesday. "Adam Silver and the top league officials have been working on the small number of holdouts that have had some questions about expansion over the last probably six months to a year, getting everybody on the same page with the direction the league wants to go. And I think they're there."
Why This Is Actually Happening Now
Mannix wasn't hedging his bets either. "I don't think Adam Silver would hold a vote like this if he didn't feel like he had overwhelming support for expansion." The league is ready to expand from 30 teams to 32, and Seattle plus Vegas are the targets.
Here's what makes this move smart: both cities are proven markets. "The pro is that we get the NBA in two great markets. Seattle and Las Vegas are ready to go, and I think they'll immediately become two of the better markets in the NBA," Mannix said. The Sonics fan base never really went away, and Vegas has already proven itself with successful NHL and NFL franchises. "Vegas, they haven't really missed when it comes to pro sports teams. The hockey team out there does well, the football team out there does well… they'll make a lot of money there."
The Catch: Two Really Bad Teams for Years
Here's where it gets dicey. Expansion always comes with a price, and that price is talent dilution. "The league gets diluted even further. The talent pool gets diluted," Mannix said. "And you have two expansion teams that for the immediate future are going to be very bad."
This is a real problem for the NBA right now. The league is already dealing with almost a third of its teams being genuinely bad. Add two expansion squads to that mix, and suddenly you're looking at five, six, or seven teams with basically zero shot at competing in any given year. "The NBA, which has touted parity over the last couple of years, will now be faced with a situation that they're going to be stuck with five, six, seven teams that enter the year with really no hope of doing anything, so that's a big downside that certainly has been discussed."
The vote happens this week. Seattle's NBA drought is almost over, but the road ahead for a new Sonics franchise won't be easy.
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This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.