Meet the Contenders-and Pretenders-for NBA Ownership in Las Vegas

Over the past two decades, Las Vegas has grown from a college hoops town into a bona fide professional basketball destination. The city has hosted NBA summer league, where top young pros seek to impress all the ball knowers and industry vets in attendance, since 2004. The Las Vegas Aces have won WNBA championships in three of the past four seasons. And recently Las Vegas has played host to the semis and finals of the NBA Cup, the league’s fetch midseason tournament. Really the only thing the Nevada desert playland has lacked in terms of NBA basketball is … an actual NBA team. So of course NBA commissioner Adam Silver has a go-to joke about all that.

“As I’ve said over the years, I’m sure I’ll be asked about a potential expansion franchise in Las Vegas,” Silver told reporters in Sin City on Tuesday night, shortly after presiding over the NBA’s latest quarterly board of governors summit. “But I’m fond of saying: We already have a franchise here, and it’s the summer league! It’s in essence operated as our 31st team now, for 22 years.”

This was an affable, on-brand deflection, though it didn’t quite satisfy anyone who has been wondering whether and/or when the NBA might finally green-light a new expansion franchise (or two) for the first time since 2004. At the last board of governors meeting, in March, the league’s owners voted to move forward on exploring the process in two cities: Seattle and Las Vegas. And since then, the games have begun—and I’m not even talking about the Spurs getting their revenge on the Knicks in summer league!

“Multiple various, serious groups are in the process of presenting plans to our bankers,” Silver said on Tuesday. “And those plans not only include who the potential owners would be, but their vision for what Las Vegas basketball could look like: where they would play, how they would present the game. And it’s music to my ears.”

Lately, fans have started hearing some of these potential ownership groups make noise. Prospective investors have been in the news, including former NBA players, coaches, and executives; local Vegas wheeler-dealers; obligatory VC guys; current and past pro sports owners; the governor of Nevada; and at least two of Taylor Swift’s wedding guests. And those are just the people we know about! “Some groups have been public,” Silver reminded reporters on Tuesday evening. “The majority of groups have not been public.”

In the past few years, existing NBA teams have changed hands at escalating valuations. ($4 billion! $6 billion! $10 billion!) Now, estimates suggest that the possible expansion fees for a new franchise could fall somewhere in the upper half of that range. Some interested parties claim to already be well-endowed and ready for the expensive action. Other contenders have already petered out.

So far in Seattle, attention has mostly centered on NHL expansion team owner Samantha Holloway—who took over the several-year-old Seattle Kraken when her father, David Bonderman, died in December 2024. While Silver noted that Holloway is not the only person interested in bringing the NBA back to town, her various advantages (she also owns the city’s new Climate Pledge Arena and she recently brought on Melinda French Gates as a minority owner) have given her group a perceived Secretariat-style lead on other NBA hopefuls.

In comparison, the competition in Las Vegas has been a far more crowded affair—even if, as Silver pointed out, many names are still sub-rosa. As we wait to learn more, here’s a quick guide to some of the more conspicuous players who have been sidling up to the high-limit tables, with their entourages and their lucky charms and their big-talk real estate visions in tow. While I’ve never really been a betting man myself—if you want some odds, the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Adam Hill has got ya covered!—I’m listing everyone here roughly in the order of how likely I believe they are to end up owning the Las Vegas Untitled Basketball Club. Eyes on the prize. Ball don’t lie. Best of luck.

The Hot Hand: Bill Foley

At first glance, granting an NBA team to Bill Foley seems to be a pretty safe bet. The title-insurance titan already helped usher in the whole Vegas pro sporting era a decade ago when he was awarded an NHL expansion franchise for $500 million. And his stewardship of the Vegas Golden Knights reaped nearly-instantaneous winnings. That team made it all the way to the 2017-18 Stanley Cup final in its very first season, won the championship in 2023, and was runner-up again this past spring. Golden Knights games are true spectacles, with production values befitting the neon city of Las Vegas. And locally, the franchise is beloved. Drive around Vegas for any period of time and you can quickly identify which cars belong to the true locals because, as far as I can tell, 99.9 percent of them have Vegas Golden Knights–branded license plate holders.

“We did a couple things really well,” Foley told The Athletic earlier this week about his NHL success. “We’re going to do it on steroids with an NBA team.”

He’s already hired Morgan Stanley bankers for advice on achieving his hoop dreams. And unlike a number of other possible owners, Foley comes with an arena already at his disposal—which is useful considering that, according to ESPN reports, the NBA would likely want any expansion teams to start playing as soon as 2028-29. T-Mobile Arena already hosts the NBA Cup games, and Foley has been chatting for years about how he’d like to invest nine more figures into the venue to upgrade it so that it would better suit basketball.

Sounds perfect, right? Well, except that, as ever in Vegas, the house always wins. As it stands now, Foley owns only 15 percent of the arena; the rest is split between MGM Resorts and the entertainment behemoth AEG. It’s unlikely that the NBA and its board of governors would want to finally bring a team to Las Vegas only to have to split all that fresh lucre with outside landlords. The league would far rather establish a Sin City stronghold/income stream all its own. That said, Foley could always opt to pool his chips with someone(s) who has bigger, bolder development plans in the medium term. Maybe together, they can all split the jackpot.

The High Rollers: Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger

I wonder whether these two guys talked NBA ownership strat while idling in the buffet line at Taylor Swift’s wedding (the most spiritually-Vegas event east of the Hoover Dam)? Either way, you don’t get much closer to the truest levers of power and influence than wherever Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger happen to stand.

Kushner—whose brother Jared is the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, and who was indirectly responsible for one of the greatest Project Runway moments of all time—is the man behind hotshot venture firm Thrive Capital, which counts among its investments some lil enterprises like Instagram, Stripe, and OpenAI. (If you want to know much, much, much more about Kushner’s professional history and personal ancestry, you’re in luck!)

And Iger, now an adviser at Thrive, is a former Fortune 500 exec so mighty that he once hand-picked his own successor at Disney only to change his mind, return, and replace him for a whole second stint running the Mouse House—truly unparalleled motion. Under Iger, the NBA deepened its broadcasting relationship with ABC and ESPN. And in 2024, Iger and his wife, Willow Bay, acquired the controlling stake in pro women’s soccer club Angel City FC in a deal valuing the franchise at $250 million.

In April of this year, Thrive announced the formation of a new investment arm called Thrive Eternal, intended to invest in long-term “assets with qualities that cannot be replicated by technology” such as “iconic franchises and cultural institutions rooted in tradition, identity, and shared experience.” (Its first holding: a minority chunk of the San Francisco Giants.) Kushner isn’t the only OpenAI investor interested in diversifying his portfolio into the human realm: Last week, financier (and noted beachfront homeowner) Vinod Khosla paid $9.6 billion for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks.

So far, little is known about what exactly a Thrive-led investment group might look like, or what kind of real estate plans this multigenerational duo would have in mind in Las Vegas. And any sale to this group would necessitate that Kushner unload a personal stake he has in the Miami Heat. But these two are possibly the most fascinating folks in the mix, given their deep pockets and even deeper connections. While this power pair’s still-stealth potential bid remains short on public details, I’d go long on their shot to rise swiftly in the board of governors’ private esteem.

The Bankrolled: Colangelo(s) and Co.

Last week marked the unveiling of the Las Vegas Jacks, the official (temporary) moniker for a motley Vegas NBA consortium that feels like a ragged hand indeed. I’m really not trying to be rude! It’s just that reading the following headline offers the same experience as pulling the crank on a slot machine and getting one cherry, one 7, and one BAR:

Basketball Hall of Famer Jerry Colangelo, Former NBA Player & Head Coach Vinny Del Negro, Emmy-Award Winning Media Executive David Levy, Finance Chairman Scott Colangelo, Noted CEO Jonathan Thomas, Former NBA No. 2 Overall Pick & Investor Jay Williams Join Forces with BTIG & U.S. Bank to Architect NBA’s Next Great Franchise & Make Las Vegas the Global Home of Basketball

A few things to note here: Somehow, the two Colangelo men involved in this deal are, per the Arizona Republic, not related. One of them, Jerry, is a pro sports lifer who previously owned teams including the (expansion!) Phoenix Suns and Arizona Diamondbacks. From 2001 to 2005 he chaired the NBA’s board of governors. Longtime Las Vegas sportswriter Steve Carp noted that “Colangelo was responsible for bringing USA Basketball’s training camp to Las Vegas” in 2006, “and people haven’t forgotten that.” The other Colangelo, Scott, is more of a money guy. (No sign in the announcement of Jerry’s actual son, our buddy Bryan …) And media executive Levy, meanwhile, previously spent 33 years at TNT, where his tenure included expanding the network’s relationship with the NBA.

What most distinguishes this group is that it claims to be targeting an all-cash bid—and says it’s well on its way to getting there. The Jacks’ press release notes that the group aims to raise $12.5 billion to $13 billion, with $5 billion of that already committed and another $3 billion “formally indicated.” While their plan is to initially play at T-Mobile Arena, they do also intend to construct a separate facility, unlike Foley. Which could wind up giving this bid a real fighting chance.

The Holders: From Magic Johnson to Marc Lasry

Over the months and years of speculation about a Vegas expansion team, a number of other entities have come up, with varying degrees of specificity. But what they all have in common is that they don’t currently seem to have much momentum, whether because their efforts have stalled or because they’ve chosen to remain quiet. You gotta know when to hold ’em, you know? This tranche of once-hopefuls includes:

Magic Johnson, whose other sports interests include minority stakes in the Los Angeles Dodgers and Washington Commanders and who is the smiling face of a group called MAGI. (If that name is any indication, whatever happens next with this group will probably involve some real costly gifts.) Linked to Johnson in this effort is Andre Cleveland—who in every article I’ve read is always described as a “sports and entertainment veteran,” which is a title I’ve decided to start bestowing upon myself, too, because it’s technically true. Rounding out the group is a Vegas businessman named Mike Bellon who upleveled from owning auto dealerships to building buildings. Earlier this year, this crew met with Nevada governor Joe Lombardo to get his support, but they don’t strike me as front-running contenders.

Former Milwaukee Bucks owner Marc Lasry, whose name crops up as someone who is reportedly interested in a Vegas franchise—but always without any additional detail.

Las Vegas NFL and WNBA owner Mark Davis, who already has quite a lot on his plate with the floundering Raiders and the reigning Aces—and/but who told a reporter this spring that “Las Vegas is a great market for basketball” before issuing a smiling no-comment about acquiring a third team.

A cryptic outfit called Chetak Development Inc. that is part of a project to construct and develop a venue called Diamond Arena. For years, the people behind this effort—who have very little in the way of identifying information on the internet, as far as I can tell!—have been buying up parcels of land across The Strip from Mandalay Bay with the aim of amassing enough space to build something new (and, according to renderings, something multifaceted). Will it shock you to learn that the vision here includes a private jet terminal with a special tunnel straight into the arena? It shouldn’t. Anyway, the Diamond Arena crew doesn’t seem to be a core candidate for the operational and governance aspect of NBA ownership. But hey, perhaps if they build their house of cards just right, they could provide the necessary scaffolding to someone else’s big, bold wager on Vegas sports.

The Folder: LeBron James

For years, LeBron James had made it known that he’d sure like to own an NBA team one day, even cc’ing Silver on his wishes. Here’s what I wrote in 2025 about their banter:

“I want the team in Vegas,” LeBron James said on an episode of his TV show The Shop in June 2022, adding that it was his goal to become an NBA franchise owner “sooner than later.” A few months after that, he made the same request more directly—even invoking the name of the commish. “I would love to bring a team here at some point,” James told reporters in Las Vegas in October 2022. “I know Adam [Silver] is in Abu Dhabi right now, I believe, but he probably sees every single interview and transcript that comes through from NBA players. So: I want the team here, Adam. Thank you.”

Silver responded in December 2023, telling SI that Las Vegas—a place where the NBA has held its summer league showcase since 2004, and a city that had recently earned NHL, NFL, and WNBA teams—was “one of those markets we’re going to look to” if and when the league considered expansion down the line. (Silver brought up Seattle as another.) But when he awarded James the MVP award for the NBA’s first midseason tournament in front of a Sin City crowd, Silver joked that the award “doesn’t come with a franchise.”

Always bet on Silver, I guess. Earlier this year, James more or less officially walked away from the high-limit table of Vegas expansion, telling reporters who asked if he was still interested in pursuing a franchise: “Not at all.” Perhaps James just wants to focus on where the heck he’s playing next.

Or maybe he’d just rather be gambling in some currency other than the U.S. dollar? Since 2025, reports have linked James’s longtime business bro Maverick Carter to Project B, a potential non-NBA global basketball tour. Meanwhile, the NBA continues to ramp up its own plans to build a league in Europe. Potential investors for that overseas initiative include the likes of rainmaker Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital and the Saudi Public Investment Fund. Silver recently signaled that the league is “on schedule” to get those efforts off the ground as soon as 2027.

The Presidentially Pardoned Perp: Tim Leiweke

There are few things more Vegas than a price-fixin’ scoundrel in showbiz-slash-construction who keeps wriggling his way out of things, so let’s briefly salute one such leader of industry: Tim Leiweke! A multi-sport executive (and beleaguered Toronto cartographer), Leiweke was the head of AEG back when T-Mobile Arena was built more than a decade ago. In 2015, he cofounded the Oak View Group, which invests in sports and entertainment infrastructure. One of the group’s early projects was building Climate Pledge Arena. And one of its biggest plans was the development of a whole new entertainment district in Las Vegas, complete with a 20,000-seat arena near Blue Diamond Road.

That project never came to fruition. In 2025, Leiweke was indicted for Sherman Antitrust Act violations involving bid-rigging on an arena development at the University of Texas. And later that year, he was pardoned by Donald Trump. You win some, you lose some! Leiweke might have botched Vegas, but this spring, he invested 100 million euros into the Italian Serie A football club Venezia. Reportedly, he did so “at Drake’s behest,” which somehow feels just right.

The Guy Betting Right: Shaquille O’Neal

In hindsight, I maybe should have listed Shaq first? He’s probably the most likely of anyone to actually become a Las Vegas NBA owner; the odds are good even if the goods are odd. But on the other hand, please note that I didn’t say that Shaq would be the Las Vegas NBA owner! (It’s all kind of like how Hannah Horvath was a voice of a generation.)

True, back in 2023, O’Neal quipped that “I don’t want to partner up with nobody. I want it all for myself.” But last year, he noted that he’s been in touch with “all the top people,” and last month Mick Akers of the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that O’Neal’s manager said he’d had conversations with “various ownership groups.” Even if Shaq Diesel doesn’t roll the dice himself, that doesn’t mean he can’t hang out at the table betting on the shooter! In a way, O’Neal has positioned himself as a free agent, someone ready to join forces with whomever might win this high-stakes crap shoot. It’s not an authentic Vegas get-together without a celeb DJ in the room, after all.

So, who will be dealt in next? And when might we know the winning hand? On Tuesday night, Silver said he is “still hopeful that this process would be wrapped up by year end, and I feel we’re very much on track.” But, he also hedged: “It could be an ultimate decision not to expand; it could be one [team], it could be two.”

I, for one, am looking forward to all the performative reshuffling that will take place in the coming months and to all the cards that will be played—from the aces to the jokers. Whenever this much dough is on the line, there is sure to be a lot of funny money out there. Like I said, I’m not much of a gambler, but I do know you can always bet on that.

Click here to read article