NBA Expansion Moving Slow, Seattle Waits: Adam Silver’s Vague Timeline
Weekly Seattle Sports Roundup
The SeaTown Sports Brew is a weekly briefing and roundup providing insight into Seattle’s sports teams and athletes. Have a tip? Leave us a comment or email me at kevin@seatownsports.org. Subscribe below if you want this in your inbox every Monday.
The Leadoff - NBA’s Adam Silver Vague On Expansion Timeline
The last time we updated you on the timeline of NBA expansion, Brian wrote optimistically that the Sonics would likely return for the 2026-2027 season.
I don’t think anything changes with that prediction, but NBA commissioner Adam Silver provided an update last week on the potential expansion process.
He said he told the NBA’s Board of Governors that the league plans to address expansion this season.
He said that there is not a “lack of interest” in expansion, but the NBA and its Board of Governors were “not quite ready” at its summer meeting to address it.
Silver added that there have not been any specific decisions to expand, nor have there been decisions made on what markets the NBA would expand to.
Finally, Silver sidestepped a question about whether Climate Pledge Arena was a suitable home for an NBA franchise in Seattle. He said the league pays attention to the viability of arenas and the potential support in different markets.
In short, no concrete news, but good news that things are moving along, even if at a slow pace.
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Winners and Losers
Losers - Washington Huskies (2-1) - The Huskies fell to the Cougars in the Apple Cup. Our post-game analysis is here:
Winners - Seattle Seahawks (2-0) - The Seahawks pulled of an exciting overtime road victory over the New England Patriots, 23-20.
Winners- Seattle Mariners (77-73) - Another week has passed, but the Mariners remain 4.5 games back behind the Astros. The Mariners split their two-game set with the Padres, and then took three of four from the Rangers. Unfortunately, it just seems like it’s too little, too late.
Winners - Seattle Sounders FC (13-7-9) - The Sounders shut out Sporting Kansas City 2-0 on Sunday. Jackson Ragen and Paul Rothrock scored for Seattle.
Winners - Seattle Storm (24-14) - The Storm went 3-0 with two wins over the Los Angeles Sparks and a win over the Dallas Wings.
On-Deck
The Washington Huskies (2-1) host the Northwestern Wildcats for UW’s first-ever Big Ten football game on Saturday, 9/21 at 4 p.m. on FS1.
The Seahawks (2-0) return home to host the Miami Dolphins (1-1) on Sunday, 9/22 at 1:05 p.m. on CBS.
The Mariners (77-73) start their final stretch of the season with a three-game series at home against the Yankees (87-63) and then travel to Texas for a three-game series against the Rangers (71-79). All games will be televised on ROOTNW.
The Sounders (13-7-9) host the San Jose Earthquakes (x-x-x) on Wednesday 9/18, 7:30 p.m. on Apple TV+ (MLS Season Pass).
The Storm (24-14) finish their regular season by hosting the Las Vegas Aces (25-13) on Tuesday 9/17, 7 p.m. on Fox 13+/Amazon Prime Video (Seattle). They then travel to face the Phoenix Mercury (18-20) on Thursday 9/19, 7 p.m. PT on Fox 13+/Amazon Prime Video (Seattle).
Fast Break
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Seattle deserves a basketball team. I can't believe the NBA allowed the greediness of Clay Bennett to steal the team away to a publicly funded arena in OKC. I have nothing against OKC. With how that team's done, they evidently deserve a basketball team also, but it never should've left Seattle.
Is the hockey arena suitable for basketball? If not, how would this situation be any different than when the team left the first time?