“They are not going to add that team Vegas until LeBron is eligible to buy it” – NBA analyst speculates NBA timeline for adding new teams, believes LeBron James’ retirement dictates the course of the situation
LeBron James has accomplished a lot in his 20-year NBA playing career and appears to have even higher goals after he retires. LeBron has made it no secret that he wants to be an NBA owner after he retires. The only other former player that is a majority owner in the league is Michael Jordan.
The NBA does plan on expanding and the cities of Las Vegas and Seattle have both been mentioned in the conversation as possible destinations for the new teams. Apparently, James has already figured out that he would like to be part of the Las Vegas franchise.
LeBron tells Adam Silver he wants the NBA Las Vegas expansion team (if/when)
youtu.be/xk13e1lzLg4 https://t.co/J0jxC8Z7bO
Now for all of this to happen, the first thing LeBron would have to do is retire, because active players cannot have ownership stakes in franchises. So, then that brings to the question of when will he retire? It has been speculated that he wants to be in the league long enough to have a chance to play alongside his son Bronny. Under current rules, the younger James will not be draft eligible until 2024.
Will the NBA give Vegas to Lebron?
Now that not only means LeBron would have to wait 2 years for his son to be available but then another season for them to have the opportunity to play together. How soon does the league want to get these new franchises going? Well, FS1 analyst Nick Wright speculated on his podcast ‘What’s Wright? With Nick Wright’ what the league may do.
Nick Wright: "I'll be shocked if I'm wrong about this. The league's expansion timeline is now going to line up with LeBron James retirement timeline. They are not going to add that team Vegas until LeBron is eligible to buy it. And that can't happen until he retires. So I don't think it's going to happen in the next year or two, but it is going to happen. LeBron has made it clear, that is the team that he wants. I believe that is the team he's going to get."
Now it does take the league a while to get the expansion process going. The NBA would like to get a team back in Seattle to replace the Sonics after they left for OKC. Vegas is intriguing because due to the gambling pro sports used to stay away. Now with the success of the WNBA’s Aces, the NHL’s Golden Knights and the NFL having the Raiders, this may be a new viable sports town. The NBA has also seen a lot of success having Summer League there in Las Vegas.