Report: Clippers vs. Trail Blazers Preseason Game Scheduled for Oct. 3 in Seattle

The NBA is coming back to Seattle.

Well, sort of.

The Los Angeles Clippers and Portland Trail Blazers have agreed to play a preseason game at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on Oct. 3, according to Andrew Greif of the Los Angeles Times.

The NBA has not played a game in Seattle since the SuperSonics left and rebranded themselves as the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008.

Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said the game came to fruition after a talk with Blazers coach Chauncey Billups.

"Me and Chaunce were talking about it, just basically being able to spend more time as best friends," Lue said. "We were talking about Vegas, and then, I was like, yeah, I live in Vegas, so that's perfect.

“And then he said: 'Well, what about Seattle? Because it's close for us and both of our owners are there.' I was like, that's cool too because I haven't been to Seattle in a while."

Seattle has been often mentioned as a potential city for NBA expansion, though commissioner Adam Silver has maintained the league is not currently looking at adding teams.

"We are not discussing that at this time," Silver told reporters earlier this month. "As I've said before, at some point, this league will invariably expand, just not at this moment."

Las Vegas is seen as the other natural expansion market. LeBron James recently said he wants to be part of the ownership group that takes over a Las Vegas franchise.

While the NBA moved out of Seattle in large part due to a lack of support for a new arena, Climate Pledge Arena recently underwent a $1.1 billion redevelopment. The NHL's Seattle Kraken and the WNBA's Seattle Storm currently call the arena home.