NBA commissioner Adam Silver would ‘love to have’ franchise in Mexico City

MEXICO CITY — It is clear that NBA commissioner Adam Silver has his eye on expansion in Mexico City, saying Saturday night, “Personally, I would love to have a team” in the largest city in North America.

But in an interview with The Athletic after his public comments, which preceded the Miami Heat and Washington Wizards’ regular-season game in the Mexican capital, Silver admitted it “would be more difficult to expand to Mexico City than it would be to expand to U.S. cities that have very publicly sought NBA teams.”

“Being direct, it’s highly unlikely Mexico City would jump above U.S. cities that are currently under consideration,” Silver said. “But at the same time, once we move into expansion mode and start looking at all the considerations that go with expansion, I think that would then allow us to have more of a template to understand whether a city like Mexico City would be suitable.”

Silver said the NBA front office has begun to study expansion internally and adding a team to Mexico City, with a population of about 22 million, is “many years off,” if it were to happen. He also said it would be his preference to add two teams instead of one if the NBA decided to expand “because then we might have to do some adjustments in the conferences, (and) I think it makes sense to have two conferences of 16 teams if we were to do it.”

Las Vegas and Seattle are the U.S. cities commonly considered top contenders for NBA expansion.

Silver said the league has received interest from numerous potential ownership groups about owning an expansion team for years, however, those gestures didn’t go far because the NBA was not in a position to add teams. In outlining the league’s process for expansion to The Athletic, Silver said if the front office determined it wanted to add teams, the matter would be referred to an existing committee of owners. The owners would solicit input from consultants, who would conduct market viability studies of all potential expansion cities. Finalists would emerge, and from there the league would engage potential ownership groups based on the location identified by the owners’ committee.

“If somebody came in and could surprise us and suggest there is interest in a market that wasn’t already on our list,” Silver said, pointing to Oklahoma City’s eventual acquiring of the Thunder from Seattle, after temporarily hosting the New Orleans Hornets for two seasons because of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

“I don’t think prior to that, people had necessarily been talking about expansion in Oklahoma City,” he said. “So sometimes you can be surprised by things that happen.”

Silver said the new $76 billion contract the NBA signed with its media partners is designed to share revenues among 30 teams — which isn’t a deal breaker but a hurdle when considering expansion in the near term.

In recent years, the NBA added the Mexico City Capitanes to the G League, who will begin their third season next week. Silver said he would discuss the possibility of adding a WNBA game in Mexico City with the league’s commissioner Cathy Engelbert when they see each other at the league offices Monday.

Silver sat courtside Saturday at the Mexico City arena with Santiago Harp Grañén, 24, vice president of the board of directors for Diablos Rojos baseball, basketball and softball franchises in the Mexican capital.

Diablos Rojos is owned by Santiago’s father, billionaire and San Diego Padres part owner Alfredo Harp Helú. Diablos is a famous Mexican League baseball franchise that hosted the New York Yankees for a game during spring training last season and started a basketball franchise in the Mexican national league this year.

Sources close to the Harp family said Santiago, who is being groomed by his father, has an interest in bringing an NBA or WNBA franchise to Mexico City.

“In many ways, Mexico City would be more additive,” Silver said. “Flipping a switch in a country of 130 million people and 22 million people here in Mexico City. And so not just from a business standpoint, but in terms of generating more interest and enthusiasm around the game. So we’re going to continue to study it.”

Saturday night’s game between the Heat and Wizards fell on a major national holiday in Mexico — Day of the Dead — adding extra flair and excitement to what has become an annual tradition of the NBA playing games in Mexico City.

Additionally, the Heat’s Jaime Jaquez Jr., born in California, has a Mexican father. There have only been five Mexican-born players in NBA history.

This story will be updated.

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(Photo: Adam Glanzman / Getty Images)