When the NBA and its players association reached a new collective bargaining agreement in 2023, a Sonics return was rumored to be around the corner.<\/p>\n
When the NBA struck an 11-year, $76 billion media-rights deal with Disney, Comcast and Amazon in 2024, a Sonics return was rumored to be around the corner.<\/p>\n
When then-Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell said he had an announcement to make at his annual State of the City address last February and pulled out a basketball from behind his lectern \u2014 delivering a tone-deaf joke \u2014 a Sonics return was rumored to be around the corner.<\/p>\n
When sales of the Minnesota Timberwolves and Boston Celtics were finalized last summer, settling two problematic pieces of financial business, a Sonics return was rumored to be around the corner.<\/p>\n
When NBA commissioner Adam Silver tasked committees with exploring expansion and its effects last July, a Sonics return was rumored to be around the corner.<\/p>\n
If this all reads as repetitive, well, that\u2019s the point.<\/p>\n
For years, Sonics fans have been fed rumors and hurdles, forced to repeat a predictable Groundhog Day. This maddening merry-go-round \u2014 Board of Governors meetings, owners meetings, news conferences, carefully prepared statements, reports, teases, compliments, committees and undue delays \u2014 has ground their patience into dust. On a circular track, even steps forward bring you back.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, is the corner getting closer?<\/p>\n
Is there a corner at all?<\/p>\n
That remains to be seen. But in December, Silver announced during the NBA Cup in Las Vegas that the league would decide in 2026 whether to expand. And in his annual All-Star Game news conference last weekend, the 63-year-old commissioner outlined additional steps.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think in fairness to the cities, Seattle and Las Vegas in particular, I\u2019ve been very clear. I don\u2019t want to tease cities or mislead anyone,\u201d Silver said. \u201cWe wanted to get through collective bargaining, national television deals. We\u2019ve done that, and now we\u2019ve turned to [expansion] as a league.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy sense is, at the March Board of Governors meetings, we\u2019ll be having further discussions around the expansion process. We won\u2019t be voting at the March meeting. But we will likely come out of those meetings ready, prepared to take a next step in terms of potentially talking to interested parties.\u201d<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t think Silver wanted to intentionally tease or mislead anyone.<\/p>\n
But the fact is, this frustrated, starving, unserved fan base has been subjected to a yearslong, continual tease. A merry-go-round march back to the beginning. Postponements disguised as progress. Deflating d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu.<\/p>\n
The decision deadline is encouraging. But even now, nothing is guaranteed. On his podcast last week, Bill Simmons noted that there\u2019s \u201ca big coalition\u201d of NBA owners against expansion. The league is also facing intensifying tanking issues, which likely wouldn\u2019t be solved by adding two more teams. The NBA is involved in launching a league in Europe as well, taking time and attention from the task of domestic expansion.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the issue of actual ownership. Kraken majority owner Samantha Holloway has expressed interest in bringing the NBA back to Seattle, with games played at Climate Pledge Arena. Is that still the case? Could other bidders potentially compete? And if the Sonics resurface, would that trigger broader conference realignment as well?<\/p>\n
Given the above, ESPN NBA insider Shams Charania cautioned last week that expansion basketball is \u201cstill a few years away from taking place.\u201d<\/p>\n
If, that is, the corner ever arrives. If rumors and reports become reality.<\/p>\n
But new carrots keep dangling every day.<\/p>\n
Like this from Dallas Morning News NBA reporter Brad Townsend, who tweeted Feb. 8: \u201cThink it\u2019s going to be an extra-great year for Seattle. I\u2019m hearing NBA Board of Governors likely to vote on expanding by two teams this summer and Las Vegas and Seattle are favored.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson\u2019s introductory conversation with Silver, which raised antennas during Super Bowl week.<\/p>\n
Speaking of which: Seattle\u2019s bona fides as a sports city are beyond dispute. Of late, they\u2019ve also been on display \u2014 via a euphoric, overflowing Super Bowl parade; via a thunderous return to October baseball at T-Mobile Park; via attendance records for the Torrent\u2019s Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League home opener and the Sounders\u2019 Leagues Cup triumph over Inter Miami CF.<\/p>\n
As Basketball Hall of Famer Reggie Miller said on \u201cThe Dan Patrick Show\u201d last week when told Las Vegas is a \u201cforegone conclusion\u201d to receive a team: \u201cI think Seattle is a foregone conclusion. It never should have left Seattle in the first place. It is a great fan base, as we just witnessed on Super Bowl Sunday, how they travel and how they\u2019ve been for their football team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Or, as former Sonics coach George Karl tweeted more bluntly: \u201cThis time better not be bull [expletive]. Bad karma to keep messing around with great sports cities like Seattle!!\u201d<\/p>\n
So far, foregone conclusions and karma haven\u2019t helped this city clear the corner. Sonics fans want their team, not another tease. But merit doesn\u2019t matter on the merry-go-round.<\/p>\n
The only thing we want to know is when we\u2019ll get off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the NBA and its players association reached a new collective bargaining agreement in 2023, a Sonics return…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480731,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[355,99],"class_list":["post-480730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}