And-Ones: Seattle, Murray, Canada, Aspiration, Extensions
In addition to announcing that Melinda French Gates is joining the Seattle Kraken’s ownership group as a minority investor, Samantha Holloway, the majority owner of the NHL team, confirmed that she’s assembling a group that will make a bid for an NBA franchise based in Seattle, writes Emily Kaplan of ESPN.
Holloway also pointed out that the Kraken’s ownership group has strengthened its case to bring the NBA to Seattle by acquiring a majority stake in Climate Pledge Arena, where the Kraken and the WNBA’s Seattle Storm play.
“The City of Seattle certainly could use an NBA team, and the fans here are ready for it,” Holloway said. “If that happens, they will all buy their Kraken friends beers because it wouldn’t happen without them. So we are hopeful, we are working on it, and stay tuned.”
We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Exploring at greater length why Jamal Murray isn’t expected to play for the Canadian national team in international competition anytime soon, Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca explains that Canada Basketball was seeking three-year commitments from its players, and the Nuggets guard wasn’t able to commit to being available for each of the next three summers. “If guys don’t commit this summer, they’re not in,” new national team coach Gordon Herbert said. “When I was with Germany, we had six or seven NBA guys and three guys didn’t come, they didn’t want to come. All of sudden they wanted to come (in) year two. Sorry. You can’t be successful in anything without commitment, in my opinion.”
- Joseph Sanberg, the co-founder of the now-bankrupt green banking company Aspiration, was sentenced this week to 14 years in federal prison, writes Baxter Holmes of ESPN. Judge Stephen V. Wilson described Sanberg as “greedy, brazen, callous” and said he would “put the grade of his fraud at the zenith,” as Holmes relays. Kawhi Leonard‘s sponsorship deal with Aspiration and Steve Ballmer‘s investment in the company are at the center of the NBA’s investigation into possible salary cap circumvention by the Clippers. In advance of his sentencing, the league said in a letter to Wilson that Sanberg “substantially assisted” its probe, while Ballmer’s attorneys advocated against leniency for the Aspiration co-founder, writing that Sanberg “flagrantly defrauded” the Clippers owner.
- Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama is the only player eligible for a rookie scale extension who is likely to sign a maximum-salary contract this offseason, in the view of Keith Smith of Spotrac. However, Smith – projecting possible deals for each member of the 2023 draft class – view Hornets forward Brandon Miller (five years, $200MM), Rockets guard Amen Thompson (five years, $185MM), and Jazz guard Keyonte George (four years, $152MM) as strong candidates for lucrative extensions.
2027/28 Season Viewed As Target For NBA Expansion
One reason the NBA isn’t yet prepared to dive head-long into expansion talks is that a potential Celtics sale could reset the market, sources tell ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Kevin Pelton, and Brian Windhorst. If the Celtics set a new record for the highest sale price ever for an NBA team, it would only increase the price tag for incoming expansion franchises, as ESPN’s trio notes.
Commissioner Adam Silver recently stated that the NBA is “not quite ready” to move forward on the expansion process, though he left the door open for those discussions to happen later on in the 2024/25 league year.
With the NBA continuing to drag its heels on expansion, league sources and people connected to potential bidding groups are viewing the 2027/28 season as the target date for when one or more expansion teams could begin playing, with the ’26/27 campaign considered an increasingly unrealistic – albeit not impossible – option, according to Bontemps, Pelton, and Windhorst.
Based on the growing valuations of NBA franchises, it’s not unrealistic to project that a pair of new teams could net the league $10 billion combined – or even more than that – in expansion fees, ESPN’s reporters suggest.
While some current NBA team owners are wary of further diluting their share of the league’s revenue by slicing off two more pieces of a “pie” currently being shared 30 ways, expansion fee payments (which don’t have to be shared with the players’ union) exceeding $300MM apiece could help sway those ownership groups, as Bontemps, Pelton, and Windhorst point out. Additionally, the $76 billion media rights deal negotiated by the NBA earlier this year has assuaged some owners’ concerns about sharing revenues with 31 partners instead of 29, the ESPN trio adds.
Here are a few more items of note from ESPN’s in-depth FAQ on the possibility of expansion:
- Although the National Basketball Players Association has no real voice in the expansion process, the union would be “very much in favor” of adding 36 new jobs (30 standard roster spots and six two-way slots) for its members, sources tell ESPN.
- Seattle and Las Vegas are widely considered the favorites to land expansion teams, but they likely won’t be the only cities receiving consideration. Sources who spoke to ESPN view Mexico City as the most likely candidate to seriously enter the mix along with Seattle and Vegas, though Bontemps, Pelton, and Windhorst acknowledge there would be a number of “logistical hurdles” to contend with.
- If Seattle and Las Vegas land expansion teams, they would both have to be Western Conference clubs, meaning one current Western team would have to move to the Eastern Conference. According to ESPN, that decision would likely come down to the Pelicans, Grizzlies, and Timberwolves, with Minnesota considered the most logical choice to move East since the Wolves are geographically closer to five Eastern opponents than they are to their closest Western opponent (Denver). Still, it could be a “protracted fight” to determine which team would change conferences.
- The ownership group of the NHL’s Seattle Kraken – led by Samantha Holloway and her father David Bonderman – is considered the most likely bidder for a Seattle franchise, per ESPN. Hall of Fame NBA executive Rick Welts has served as an advisor for the Kraken ownership group, which also includes the sons of former Sonics owner Barry Ackerley. Chris Hansen, who previously attempted to relocate the Sacramento Kings to Seattle, isn’t expected to lead a bid to bring the NBA to the city, but would be willing to assist in the process, ESPN’s trio adds.
- Active NBA players aren’t permitted to own a stake in an existing franchise, but the rules for an active player becoming a stakeholder in an expansion franchise (before it begins play) aren’t as clear. Those rules may need to be clarified in the coming years, with LeBron James seriously interested in getting involved in a bid for a Las Vegas team. According to ESPN’s report, former Bucks co-owner Marc Lasry is putting together a group to bid for a Vegas franchise — that group is expected to include longtime WNBA star Candace Parker.