NBA has clear path to adding Seattle and Las Vegas thru Portland

Silver and Co. only have to allow the Blazers' franchise to move to Seattle to make it happen

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All the local basketball fans who are unhappy with the ownership of the Blazers got a glimmer of - may have gotten - hope last week when NBA Commissioner Adam Silver noted he'd like to see Las Vegas in the league in the near future.

The NBA was in town for All-Star Game Weekend.

Las Vegas seems a natural fit for the NBA with its glamour appeal and because it's already a hit in the NHL and with the Raiders of the NFL having moved there. The Oakland A's are still working on their move, but if that were to stay on target an NBA team would be the fourth major league to move into sin city in the past decade.

One expansion franchise would necessitate another to move to 32 teams, which seems the max a league can go in the U.S.

The natural expansion partner for Las Vegas is Seattle, Portland's top rival from its early days when they played as the SuperSonics in reference to the town's connection with airplane manufacturing.

The Sonics moved to Oklahoma City in 2008, and became the Thunder largely due to the local residents not wanting to pony up money for a newer stadium. Seattle has since renovated its former main arena and it plays host to the Kraken of the NHL - the Kraken being an expansion team from 2021.

Now, Portland is already in the NBA, so why does it need to be an expansion franchise? That would be to assist its owner, Jody Allen, with allowing the city to have a local owner instead of someone who lives in - Seattle.

Allen, whose brother Paul bought the Blazers from its original ownership crew in 1988, also owns the Seattle Seahawks, so why wouldn't owning an NBA team in-town be a great idea?

The NBA could just allow Allen to move the team she already owns to Seattle, and allow Portland to buy back into the league with an expansion franchise - one owned by Phil Knight and Friends.

Allen won't profit right away by selling the Blazers, but her franchise is likely to improve in value since Seattle is a much larger market.

The NBA would only need to demand the rights to the Blazers name and history stays in town and with Uncle Phil and Friends. And, then add Vegas.

So, there's the path to everyone winning!!

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Blazers

Cliff Pfenning

Cliff is a lifelong resident of Oregon and has four decades of experience as a writer, photographer, videographer, broadcaster and now producer. He's a grad of Benson and the University of Oregon, and publishes Oregonsports.com as well as OSPN, which is scheduled for delivery as a streaming Mobile App in December.

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