Speaking on his HBO television show “The Shop,” NBA star LeBron James, 37, stated he wants to own a team in Las Vegas.
James recently was feted as the second billionaire to have played in the NBA, following Michael Jordan.
“I want to own a team, I want to buy a team, for sure,” James said in clip from his show. “I would much rather own a team before I talk. I want a team in Vegas. Yeah, I want the team in Vegas.”
James already serves as a part owner of the Boston Red Sox since he joined Fenway Sports Group (FSG) as a partner.
NBA Commission Adam Silver dismissed rumors of moving one of the NBA’s teams to Las Vegas or Seattle last week, contending, “That talk is not true.”
“As I said before, at some point, this league invariably will expand, but it’s not at this moment that we are discussing it,” he added.
“One of the factors in expanding is the potential dilution of talent, Silver said. “As I’ve said before, I find it remarkable that when you have the second-most-played sport in the world after soccer, tens of millions of young men playing in this game, and then you have the 450 best in the world in this league, that there’s a few of them who separate themselves even among those 450 as the very best of the best, but there is then a fall-off, a drop-off in talent after that.”
“So expansion does create a certain amount of dilution,” he explained. “And even sort of adding another 30 players or so that are roughly comparable, there still are only so many of the truly top-tier super talents to go around. That is something on the mind of the other teams as we think about expansion. But those are wonderful markets. We’ll be looking at it at some point, but there’s no specific timeline right now.”
“Those are wonderful markets,” Silver continued. “Again, as I’ve said before, we were in Seattle. I’m sorry we are no longer there. We have a WNBA team in Seattle in an almost brand-new building that’s doing spectacular. And Las Vegas, where will be at our Summer League in July, has shown itself to be a great sports market as well.”
The Oak View Group has already announced it has plans to build an “NBA ready” arena in Las Vegas.
“Las Vegas is the entertainment capital and so what we have to build is the best we have ever built for Las Vegas,” OVG chief executive officer Tim Leiweke opined to CNBC.
“Should the NBA decide to come and by the way, there’s no certainty or no guarantees that the NBA is ever coming to Vegas, but should they come, we certainly will be NBA ready,” he said.