The Luka Doncic trade hasn’t been the only surprise from the Los Angeles Lakers in 2025. The Buss family has been one of sports’ greatest families, but their tenure as owners of the Lakers has come to an end. Their record-breaking sale of the team has opened the door for many changes to come in the NBA.
Advertisement
The transaction between the Buss family and Mark Walter is the highest point of purchase for a sports team at $10 billion. If the NBA’s new media deal didn’t signify the amount of money within the league, this sale certainly does.
Aside from Walter, who will hope to make the Lakers one of the league’s premier teams again, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is the happiest with this transaction. The reasoning behind this joy comes from what this means for the NBA moving forward. There have been plenty of rumblings about the league expanding for many years now. ESPN insider Brian Windhorst believes that the time may be now for that change to happen.
“With these prices, the expansion fee could be in the excess of $6 billion,” Windhorst said on ESPN’s First Take.
The primary reason an expansion hasn’t occurred in the NBA is strictly due to financial considerations. An expansion dilutes the share that owners have in the league, which would lead to a motion being declined. Now that a franchise may sell for greater than $6 billion, it would certainly make up for the split shares.
How would the expansion fee make up for it? The answer is quite simple. In any other NBA dealings, such as ticket costs and merchandise, the money is split between players and owners. When it comes to an expansion fee, the money only goes to the owners.
This would prove to be a great incentive for teams to push for the addition of a couple of teams. Windhorst doesn’t have any confirmation on which cities would earn an NBA franchise. But he has two prominent cities at the front of his mind.
“If you’re in Seattle or Las Vegas, you can feel good that the NBA is probably going to move towards expansion,” Windhorst proclaimed.
Seattle and Las Vegas have shared a connection to the NBA for quite some time. After all, Seattle used to have an NBA franchise with the SuperSonics, before they relocated to become the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Las Vegas, on the other hand, has been a hub for the NBA for many years, as it has been the home of the NBA Summer League. Of course, plenty of other cities will be in the sweepstakes for a franchise. Those bidding wars may begin sooner than expected.
