Ballmer can't see NBA team back in Seattle anytime soon
Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer says basketball fans in Seattle need to accept a harsh reality about getting a NBA team back: It's not going to occur in the next few years.
"It's just not likely to happen," Ballmer told the Seattle Times' Geoff Baker this week. "There has been no discussion about expansion since I have been involved with the league. So, I don't think that will happen. The league has really moved to favor teams staying in their current markets. You'd have to find a team that's at the end of their (arena) lease, where it looks hard to build an arena and where they've tried really hard to build an arena."
With the Milwaukee Bucks beginning construction on a new building this spring, all current NBA franchises appear tightly ensconced where they are - for now. Commissioner Adam Silver has said the league is not in expansion mode, and with an even 30 teams, that makes sense.
Still, there's been a market demand for the NBA in Seattle ever since the Sonics departed and became the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008. The Sacramento Kings flirted with the city before being sold to Vivek Ranadive in 2013, and Ballmer himself was linked to Seattle after purchasing the Clippers in 2014.
The former Microsoft CEO, who still lives in Seattle, has stressed more than once, however, that the Clippers - which he bought for $2 billion - are not leaving the country's second-largest media market.
"The Clippers are not going anywhere, ever," he told the Seattle Times. "I will die owning the L.A. Clippers."