After years of speculation and rumors, it sounds like the NBA is finally going to get moving on expansion this summer. On Sunday night, The Dallas Morning News’ Brad Townsend shared that Las Vegas and Seattle are the two cities the league’s Board of Governors will vote to expand to.
“Think it's going to be an extra-great year for Seattle,” he tweeted shortly after the Seahawks defeated the Patriots in Super Bowl 60. “I'm hearing NBA Board of Governors likely to vote on expanding by two teams this summer and Las Vegas and Seattle are favored.”
Of course, Seattle had the SuperSonics ripped away from them in 2008, when the team relocated to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder. There’s long been a call for Seattle to get an expansion franchise, or to move one of the sad pathetic ones, like the Sacramento Kings or Los Angeles Clippers up there.
Vegas also has been in line for a team for some time now, for whatever reason. It’s probably the relationship they’ve grown with the league where Summer League gets hosted out there as does the NBA Cup semis and final.
Two Pacific Time teams would be a brutal expansion result for the Celtics
As a member of the Boston Celtics community who lives on the East Coast, this is an annoying reality to face. Not so much because I care whether or not Seattle (deservedly) or Las Vegas (eh) get an NBA team, but more so because this means that each season I’m going to have to watch two additional games that start on Pacific Time.
No one has it worse than me.
Staying up to cover a game that tips at 10 p.m. ET is painful (not that I’d rather work any other job). It’s one of those things that no matter how seldom it actually happens, in the moment I can’t believe it’s already time to do it again.
Frankly, I think that any time an East Coast team plays out West, the game should still start on Eastern Time. What does it matter to them if they get to go to the arena a few hours early?
Plan for it, take time out of work, make a nice day out of it.
Now, I will say, the one positive to take away from this news is that St. Louis isn’t getting a team. If the NBA was headed there, there’s a real chance that Jayson Tatum would be tempted to go home and be the face of the new franchise.
Fortunately for Celtics fans, that’s not in the cards, just a few extra late nights instead.