NBA expansion has been in the news the last year or so. Here’s a potential scenario in how it could go down.
The date is June 21, 2021. The Seattle Pilots are hosting game six of the Stanley Cup Finals and lead the Pittsburgh Penguins 4-2 with less than a minute to play. A win would bring the Cup back to Seattle for the first time since 1917.
Key Arena is sold out and filled with the home team’s blue and green. It creates an atmosphere that rivals even the Moda Center. Seattle has a third major sports franchise for the first time since 2008, and the fan base couldn’t be more ecstatic.
How the NBA expansion starts
As the Pilots are protecting its lead in Game 6, members of the Oak View Group are in the NBA league offices in New York, finalizing an expansion deal with Commissioner Adam Silver.
With the rousing success of the Key Arena remodel (despite a terrible increase in traffic), the NBA has agreed to expand the NBA to 32 teams, returning the history of the Supersonics to Seattle and granting the city a team starting in the 2022-23 season.
To balance the league and attempt to curb Western Conference team’s need to travel cross country for conference games, the NBA’s second expansion franchise is granted to Kansas City. The team will be known as the Kansas City Knights and will play their home games in a remodeled Sprint Center.