Damian Lillard, Gary Payton Talk Potential NBA Expansion Team in Seattle

After the NBA got its most recent television deals finalized prior to the start of this season, expansion became a popular talking point for the league.

It was a subject that came up again during All-Star weekend, with two key basketball figures who have Pacific Northwest ties expressing their hope that Seattle will get a team at some point.

Damian Lillard, who spent 11 seasons playing for the Portland Trail Blazers, told Tim Booth of the Seattle Times that he would be completely in favor of Seattle getting a team if the NBA decides to expand:

"I just love the Northwest in general. Spent so much time in Portland, and being in Portland sometimes shows don’t come through Portland, so you got to make that trip to Seattle. I’m a big WNBA fan. Got a great relationship with Jewell Loyd for her time while she was there. I know she just left. So me and her would talk, I would go up and watch their games in Seattle. I would go up and visit with my agent … and it was such an easy drive, such an easy trip. So I love the Northwest. ... That’s definitely a place, like, anybody who would get the opportunity to play in that city, they’ll be a lucky customer."

Seattle SuperSonics legend Gary Payton, who has said he wants to be part of a Seattle NBA ownership group, explained he's confident the city will eventually be home to an NBA franchise again.

"We’ve been frustrated for 18 years, but it doesn’t matter. I think that we know the inside of it and I know Adam Silver is doing what he has to do," Payton said. "We got to make it at the right time. Seattle will be back, so I’m not worried about that."

In a poll of players conducted by The Athletic's Joe Vardon during All-Star weekend, Seattle finished tied with Paris for second on the list of potential expansion cities with four votes. Las Vegas topped the list with eight votes.

"Probably Vegas, or probably go back to Seattle," Trail Blazers guard Bryce McGowens said. "Vegas, I feel like it’s one of those cities where a lot of people are attracted to. And then Seattle, just going back to the SuperSonics days, it was cool to watch."

NBA commissioner Adam Silver first acknowledged the possibility of expansion in December 2020, but it wasn't yet "on the front burner" of topics for the league.

Silver recently teased the formation of an NBA Europe league that would be a standalone operation from the NBA. ESPN's Brian Windhorst noted a new European league would in theory have no impact on NBA expansion in Seattle and Las Vegas because that could proceed independently of what might happen in Europe.

There's no indication that expansion is imminent in the NBA. The league did return to Seattle in the preseason for a matchup between the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers.

The NBA maintains a connection to Seattle through the WNBA with the Storm. The SuperSonics final season was in 2007-08 before the franchise relocated to Oklahoma City in the summer of 2008.

There hasn't been expansion in the NBA since the 2004-05 season when the Charlotte Bobcats joined the league. The Bobcats rebranded as the Hornets in 2014.

The current 21-year timeline since the league last expanded is the longest without expansion in NBA history.