The NBA Board of Governors plans to meet in New York next Monday and Tuesday (September 14-15), according to reports ESPN’s Brian Windhorstwho writes that this meeting of team leaders can be particularly productive.
As Windhorst details, there are three main storylines that are likely to move forward during or after these Board of Governors meetings.
One of these storylines worth looking at has to do with the sanctions imposed against Clippers after the NBA determined the team violated the league’s salary cap circumvention rules. Although the league announced last Wednesday that his ruling was binding, Commissioner Adam Silver has yet to publicly discuss the decision and figures to do so for the first time next week. The Clippers, for their part, have yet to publicly waive or accept the NBA fines, issuing two statements last Wednesday that said they planned to fight the ruling and were considering legal action.
Since then, the Clippers have remained silent on the matter and have also not completed their deal Kawhi Leonard trade with Toronto, despite the fact that the Raptors and Leonard are according to reports ready to move forward. It is still unclear what their next steps will be.
While the five lost first-round draft picks, received a $30 million fine and extended suspensions for the team owner Steve Ballmerpresident of business operations Jillian Zuckerand president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank generated more headlines, Windhorst says league executives are curious to see what the NBA’s five-year “compliance and monitoring program” will entail for the Clippers.
“Are they going to read all their email, read their text messages, listen to their phone calls?” one CEO asked Windhorst. “I have no idea what it (the fine) means.”
Another important topic for discussion during the meeting of the Board of Governors next week will be the situation with NBA Europe. According to Windhorst, the NBA is still preparing to move forward with its new European league, which is slated to launch in the fall of 2027 with 12 permanent teams and four additional rotating spots.
While NBA Europe is expected to feature some newly formed clubs, the NBA prefers to join forces with the Euroleague to also attract some of the best existing European teams. Owners of Euroleague teams a meeting is scheduled Oct. 5 to discuss whether to merge with the NBA in its own FIBA-backed league and is believed to be awaiting a formal offer from the NBA, Windhorst wrote.
Finally, potential NBA expansion in Las Vegas and/or Seattle will also be discussed next Monday and Tuesday. The league has been vetting potential ownership groups in both markets for the past few months, and it’s likely that team executives will vote next week on whether to move forward with expansion beyond the NBA’s current 30 teams.
According to Windhorst, some teams are projected to pay an expansion fee of $500 million to $600 million for each current franchise, making the total expansion fee for the two new teams $15 billion to $18 billion. Vegas’ numbers were long expected to be higher than the Seattle franchise’s.
