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Another NBA team in Canada? Commissioner is telling us there's a chance

Rob Williams
Rob Williams
|
Jun 12 2025, 8:22 pm
Another NBA team in Canada? Commissioner is telling us there's a chance
Nick Turchiaro/Imagn Images

So you’re telling us there’s a chance.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver was quizzed about expansion during an interview on The Dan Patrick Show, and his response was interesting.

Unlike the NHL, the NBA has resisted expansion in recent years. They haven’t added a new team since 2004, when Charlotte re-entered the league. Prior to that, the last expansion teams were the Toronto Raptors and Vancouver Grizzlies in 1995.

The NHL, by contrast, added a team in Seattle in 2021 and Las Vegas in 2017. Columbus (2000), Minnesota (2000), Atlanta (1999), and Nashville (1998) have also been added in the last 30 years.

“There’s cities worth thinking about,” Silver admitted, though he later added that he didn’t want to mention any specific cities by name.

“It’s not obvious to me [that] we should expand. I think it’s likely over time we will.”

Seattle and Las Vegas have long been considered the most obvious landing spots for new NBA franchises, but Silver seemed to open the door for international expansion one day too.

“Adding another U.S. city arguably, it’s unclear how much growth we’ll get as a result of that. And when you’re adding expansion franchises, you’re diluting the competition… And you’re diluting your economics. We have locked in television money now for the next decade [and] you have two more partners.”

But what about Canada?

“Having said that, I do believe certain markets potentially can be added to the NBA, and that’s what we’re going to look at. I think part of it is geographic. [The United States is] a big country. Making sure we’re represented all around the country. And then over time, maybe there’s more we can do in Canada and Mexico City is a city we’ve talked about before.”

If the NBA does add a second team in Canada one day, it would seem that Vancouver and Montreal have the inside track.

With 4.6 million people, Montreal has the largest metro population of any city in Canada or the United States without an NBA team. Vancouver isn’t far behind, at 3.1 million in metro area population.

Those two cities have also been the most visited cities by the NBA Canada Series. Since 2012, Montreal has hosted eight NBA preseason games, while six have been held in Vancouver.

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