Everything Adam Silver Said About NBA Expansion, Tanking and More Ahead of Knicks vs. Spurs

With the eyes of the NBA world turning to the Finals matchup between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks, commissioner Adam Silver was focused on the future of the league Wednesday.

He addressed a number of topics during his annual pre-NBA Finals press conference, including the "ongoing" discussions about potential domestic expansion to Seattle and Las Vegas.

Silver said multiple groups are interested in bringing teams to those cities, although there's no set timetable and guarantee it will happen.

"It's not a foregone conclusion that we will expand ... but what we've told all interested parties is our board will make a decision by the end of this calendar year," Silver said.

Seattle used to be the home of the SuperSonics before the team moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder starting with the 2008-09 season. Las Vegas has never had an NBA team, but it has been a focal point of league expansion and movement across the sports world of late and will have teams in the NFL, WNBA, NHL and MLB once the Athletics officially make their move.

The NBA may be next in line.

While there is plenty of attention on potential domestic expansion, Silver also said the NBA still plans on starting a new independent league in Europe with FIBA and hopes to award franchises to locations starting in the fall.

"We are very much on schedule," Silver said. "It is our hope and anticipation that that league will launch in the '27-28 season in Europe. We are on track. Final bids from franchises are due at the end of this month, at the end of the month in June. We've seen record interest and we're very excited about the ongoing opportunity and working closely with FIBA, our federation."

Many of the league's best players, including Victor Wembanyama, Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić and Giannis Antetokounmpo, are from Europe, and a new standalone league would surely only expand interest in the sport across the continent.

The commissioner mentioned the ongoing feud between Charles Oakley and New York Knicks governor James Dolan ahead of the NBA Finals, saying he and NBA legend Michael Jordan tried unsuccessfully to solve the problem:

Silver also addressed tanking, which was not particularly surprising since it has been such a topic of interest this season ahead of a loaded 2026 NBA draft.

The NBA's board of governors even approved changes to the draft lottery format starting next season in an effort to curb the practice.

"Tanking is not a new issue for this league," Silver said. "I think what maybe surprised us all a little bit is how quickly it became acceptable behavior in this league. I think it used to be limited, frankly, to a small group of teams. I think I could genuinely stand up and talk about rebuilding and not say tanking, and it was practiced in a different way." 

The new "3-2-1" lottery rules expand the lottery from 14 to 16 teams and gives the three worst teams two ping-pong balls, the teams with the fourth through 10th worst records three ping-pong balls, the Nos. 9 and 10 play-in seeds two ping-pong balls, and the losers of the 7-8 play-in games one ping-poing ball.

What's more, teams cannot draft No. 1 overall two years in a row.