King James might be onto something with this suggestion. LeBron James has recently said in an interview that if the NBA had another expansion, he would like to see the next expansion team located in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Out of all of the sports that match the atmosphere of a city like Las Vegas, I think basketball is the one that fits the best. Sure, sports like hockey (Vegas Golden Knights) and football (Las Vegas Raiders) have transitioned into the Sin City well enough, with the Vegas Golden Knights even reaching the Stanley Cup Finals in its first season, but I’ve always just felt like the vibe around these teams could have been a little better.
Or at least they could feel a little bit more like Las Vegas.
Yes, the Vegas Golden Knight fans are crazy and have supported their team from Day 1, but is Las Vegas really a ‘hockey town’? Aside from California in recent days, is any city or state to the west of the Utah-Nevada border (in the US, of course as any part of Canada is hockey crazy) a place where hockey can thrive?
The Arizona Coyotes have had to relocate to a college stadium as they were getting low attendance, the California Golden Seals went defunct before Gretzky arrived in LA, while the Anaheim Ducks barely survived getting sold by Disney back in the early 2000’s.
Plus, the Colorado Rockies (which was a team that is east of the Utah-Nevada border but is close enough to count) also were famously dubbed the ‘Mickey Mouse’ team of the NHL by none other than the Great One himself before they moved to the East Coast and became the New Jersey Devils.
As for football, how many cities have the Raiders been located in now? 3?
If this was a brand-new franchise or really any other team aside from the Raiders (or the Rams for that matter), I’m sure I wouldn’t have such an issue with an NFL team in Las Vegas. But since it’s the Raiders, who have previously been based out of both Oakland and Los Angeles, it just doesn’t feel right to see the Raiders play in front of Vegas fans who probably are just a bunch of people from Oakland and LA anyways.
I guess what I’m saying is that the Raiders fanbase in Las Vegas feels artificial…for now. Maybe after a decade or so of staying in Sin City, I’ll feel differently. Yet, as of today, the Raiders being based out of Las Vegas looks more like a cash grab by the owner than an overwhelming desire from the Vegas residents to have a football team.
However, with all of that being said, a basketball team moving to Las Vegas is just perfect. At least to me, the very sport of basketball has a flamboyant, showboating, fast-paced, and high-stakes vibe to it that it fits in perfectly with the type of city Las Vegas is.
To be honest, it would be great to see a team like the Oklahoma City Thunder moved out of their current location and into Las Vegas as not only does that specific franchise have a history of moving, but also the move from Oklahoma City to Las Vegas isn’t that far of a distance. Though, it definitely is a MASSIVE cultural difference to go from Las Vegas to Oklahoma City.
Anyway, the best solution to LBJ’s suggestion is just to implement two new NBA teams and place one in Las Vegas and another in wherever the league can make the most money, while also garnering the most interest from that said team.
So, in the end, I’d have to agree with LeBron and his idea to bring a team to Las Vegas. It is a sports match made in heaven if ever there was one.
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