SEATTLE — The National Basketball Association (NBA) will return to Seattle on Friday night, albeit just for a single evening.
For the third consecutive year, there will be an NBA preseason game at Climate Pledge Arena in what has been labeled the Rain City Showcase. The two teams competing in the exhibition both have ownership groups with strong Seattle ties: the Los Angeles Clippers are owned by former Microsoft executive Steve Ballmer and the Portland Trail Blazers are owned by Jody Allen, the sister of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.
The latest edition of the series comes as expansion rumors surrounding the league's return to Seattle have intensified. Now that the NBA has completed its new media-rights deal, commissioner Adam Silver has indicated that expansion of the league is something the Board of Governors will discuss sometime during the 2024-25 season.
“I think we will engage this fall, in earnest, in the process of making those determinations — should we expand and if we were to expand, how many teams should we expand,” Silver said in July (h/t Associated Press).
Ever since the Seattle Supersonics moved out of the Emerald City 16 years ago, efforts to bring the NBA back have come and gone. The potential for the NBA in Seattle became much more realistic following the renovation of Climate Pledge Arena, which even included the construction of a locker room up to NBA standards.
The arena is currently home to the Seattle Kraken and Seattle Storm and is now one of the premiere venues for concerts and live events in the city. The ownership group of the Kraken, which also operates Climate Pledge Arena, is widely expected to be the group that ends up landing a potential future expansion NBA team.
Many fans in the Seattle area still hold anger in their hearts over the circumstances that surrounded the Supersonics' departure from the Pacific Northwest. On one hand, the Rain City Showcase is a great opportunity for Seattle to show off its passion for the NBA and how well the league's return would be received.
On the other hand, Seattleites have been teased for years about a possible return of the NBA. It feels somewhat cruel that the city gets one game a year but remains without a franchise to call its own.
Regardless, it will be the news story of the year in Seattle whenever the NBA formally announces expansion into the city.
For now, fans will have to settle for a dash of NBA action.