NFL
By: Brock Vierra
The NBA has never been in a better position than it is in right now. They have hit peaks in revenue, attendance, and international and domestic viewership and are the clear second favorite sport in the US behind football. The 30 teams that make up the association have provided great basketball to fans across the globe but I believe it is time to grow the sport even more.
I am presenting a new theory to shake up the game and it is called “divisionless basketball.” Let’s be real, division in the NBA doesn’t really matter except for scheduling. No one cares about division titles, it doesn’t affect playoff seeding and in the case of expansion, it would either force six new teams to enter the league or the league would have to perform a complete division reshuffle. Here’s my solution.
Four new franchises. Three in the West. One in the East with Memphis joining the Eastern Conference as well to make a total of 34 teams, 17 in each conference. In the West, Seattle, Las Vegas, and Vancouver would all be awarded franchises while the new team in the East would belong to New Jersey. Let’s talk about it.
Seattle Supersonics: This is an easy one. Seattle wants the Sonics back, the town has a proven and loyal fan base who rock Sonics gear despite the team being gone from the league for over 15 years and there are no plans for a franchise currently in the NBA to move anytime soon. It would be like the NFL giving Cleveland the Browns back after Art Modell moved them to Baltimore. Their old arena is still there and in use by the Seattle Storm and Seattle Kracken, it underwent massive renovations from 2018-2021 so it’s state of the art and the NBA once again wants the team there. Easy to do, no reason not to bring back the Supersonics.
Las Vegas: Another easy selection. Vegas has virtually everything Seattle has except for having a former franchise. However, Vegas hosts the NBA summer league every year, has hosted an All-Star weekend, has an international airport 10 minutes away from T-Mobile Arena (where the franchise would expect to play), has both a proven fan base with the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights and the WNBA champions, Las Vegas Aces and it’s a booming city. One of the fastest growing cities in America, Vegas has brought in six professional sports franchises in the last decade to great success and with both the MLS and MLB expected to make bids into the city, it would make no sense for the NBA not to have a team there.
Vancouver: The most controversial selection on the list, I went with the place North of the border instead of the mid-west for one clear-cut reason. It isn’t 2001 anymore. The NBA and college game is full of Canadian talent. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Andrew Wiggins were both All-Stars, Wiggins and Anthony Bennett were number-one overall picks and the game has never been healthier for the Great White North. Toronto won an NBA title and we saw how crazy they went, the western half of the country wants a team like that too. There’s already an arena in place, the Vancouver Whitecaps have proven there’s a market for non-hockey sports teams in the city and there’s a natural rivalry between them, Portland, Seattle, and Toronto. Western Canada wants basketball and it’s time to make it happen.
Memphis Grizzlies: The only reason Memphis is in the west is due to the fact they used to be in Vancouver. Yes they would be the most western, Eastern conference team but they’re already the most eastern, Western conference team and there’s nothing about Tennessee that screams west. They’re closer to the Atlantic Ocean than to the Pacific, there’s a geological rivalry between them and the teams in the South plus it would make travel so much easier for the squad. It also balances the numbers.
New Jersey: There is no question that one of the hotbeds for high school basketball is New Jersey. A state that turns out ballers has been without its own franchise since the Nets moved to Brooklyn. This is a place that is basketball, through and through and many people have expressed a desire to have a team in the state. With each passing year, the love for the Nets gets lower and lower as they take their New York or “Bed-Stuy” identity to the national media market. The Prudential Center is still in use and Seton Hall makes good use out of it. Seems like a slam dunk to me.
