Las Vegas clears biggest hurdle toward NBA expansion

LAS VEGAS — The biggest hurdle has been cleared.

Las Vegas’ NBA future was decided Wednesday when the league’s Board of Governors decided to move forward with exploration of expanding from the current 30 teams to 32. Along with Las Vegas, Seattle is also being considered.

Without the owners’ green lighting the plan, Vegas’ NBA dream would have died right there. Instead, it glided over the biggest hurdle the way Edwin Moses used to navigate the hurdles in his illustrious track career.

“Today’s vote reflects our Board’s interest in exploring potential expansion to Las Vegas and Seattle — two markets with a long history of support for NBA basketball,” commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement from New York where the owners met and voted. “We look forward to taking this next step and engaging with interested parties.”

Understand that there are still other hurdles to clear before a Las Vegas and Seattle team steps foot onto an NBA floor in 2028-29. The biggest will be the ownership group that will go through a thorough vetting process courtesy of investment bank PJT Partners before the owners agreer to let them into their club.

Whoever is approved better have deep, deep pockets. ESPN has said on numerous occasions that the cost to join the NBA will range from $7 billion to $10 billion. Already, LeBron James said he is no longer interested in pursuing being part of an ownership group for Las Vegas. Magic Johnson has said that his group MAGI is interested and recently met with Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo.

Lombardo was among several politicians at the city, county, state and federal level to laud the NBA’s decision Wednesday.

“I’m very excited to see then NBA advance this process toward a Las Vegas expansion team,” Lombardo said in a statement. “Today’s vote by the NBA’s Board of governors is a testament to the incredible growth we’re seeing in Southern Nevada and our state’s business-friendly environment. Las Vegas has already shown unwavering support for our professional sports franchises and a new NBA team will provide even more entertainment, more jobs and more small business growth or the region.

“I look forward to continuing conversations with Commissioner Silver and league officials to ensure this expansion delivers lasting benefits for the state of Nevada.”

Golden Knights majority owner Bill Foley had previously expressed some interest in owning a Vegas NBA franchise. He has been mum on the subject of late so who knows where his thought process is? There may be other interested suitors who have yet to surface but now will come forward given the process can proceed.

And then there’s the family of Miriam Adelson, which owns the Dallas Mavericks. The family has deep ties to Las Vegas and might be willing to sell the Mavs to clear a path toward ownership of a Vegas NBA team.

Then there are matters of where the team will play, what will be its name (colleague Willie Ramirez says it has to be the “Sharks” in tribute to Jerry Tarkanian), who will run the basketball and business side of things and many other details. Those will get sorted out over time. But the next important matter will be the ownership group.

T-Mobile Arena would likely serve as the logical starting point for any NBA team in Las Vegas until someone builds a new facility for the team. So far, the talk of doing that at several locations by different groups has been just that — talk.

Let’s not forget that Seattle once had an NBA team. The SuperSoniucs existed from 1967 to 2008 and won the NBA title in 1979. So it’s great to see that city potentially getting its team back. It’ll likely play at Climate Pledge Arena, an outstanding facility and home of the NHL’s Kraken and the WNBA’s Storm.

But here in Las Vegas, while we’ve never had a franchise per se, we’ve had NBA basketball at every level. We’ve hosted preseason games with the Lakers and the Clippers. We’ve had regular-season games with the Jazz at the Thomas & Mack Center in the mid-1980s. We had the NBA All-Star Game in 2007. We’ve had the NBA Summer League for over two decades and we’ve even hosted an NBA playoff game between the Lakers and Portland in 1993. The NBA Cup has called Las Vegas home since its inception three years ago. So we’re no stranger to the Association.

Whichever group gets to own the Las Vegas NBA franchise, it would be wise to sit with Foley, assuming he isn’t awarded it, and pick his brain about how to go about connecting with the community. Basketball in this town will prove to be a far easier sell than hockey was given our history with the game.

Ultimately, the Vegas NBA team must be successful on the court. That means whatever ownership group acquires the rights to the franchise, it better pick the right president and general manager for the basketball operations side. One of Foley’s first hires with the Golden Knights was George McPhee as his GM and we all know how that has worked out during his time in Vegas — a perennial playoff team and a 2023 Stanley Cup championship.

Finding a smart, savvy basketball executive to build the roster, hire the right coaching staff, oversee the construction of the team’s practice facility and knowing the NBA’s nuances inside-out will be critical.

That’s a discussion for another day once the league has settled on its Vegas ownership group and that $7 billion expansion fee has been secured. But it will be critical to the franchise’s health and well-being, both short- and long-term.

The year 2028 could be the most memorable we’ll ever see for sports in this city. Major League Baseball with the Athletics. The NCAA Men’s Final Four at Allegiant Stadium. And the NBA tipping off. The best part? It’ll be here before you know it.

As for today, if you’re an NBA fan in Southern Nevada, it’s time to celebrate. The wait has been excruciatingly long, not as long as Seattle’s wait, but still long enough.