The NBA’s expansion process is now official, and with Seattle back on the league’s front burner, one familiar billionaire name has returned to the conversation: Larry Ellison.
The NBA’s Board of Governors voted this week to begin formally exploring expansion bids for Seattle and Las Vegas, a significant procedural step toward what could eventually become a 32-team league. Commissioner Adam Silver has stressed that the move does not guarantee new franchises, but it does open the door to formal vetting of ownership groups, arena situations and market economics. Current expectations place franchise prices in roughly the $7 billion to $10 billion range, with 2028-29 widely viewed as the earliest plausible entry point for new teams.
In Seattle, Ellison is once again being mentioned as a possible player in the process. According to multiple reports, the Oracle co-founder is back in the mix as interest around a potential Sonics return accelerates. That alone is enough to make him one of the most fascinating names in the story, because few ultra-wealthy figures have spent more time circling the NBA without ever quite landing a franchise.
Ellison’s history with the league gives that possibility real weight. In 2010 that he was widely viewed as a serious interested party when the Golden State Warriors went up for sale, though the club ultimately went to Joe Lacob’s group. Around that same period and in the years that followed, Ellison was also linked to other NBA ownership opportunities, including efforts involving the Memphis Grizzlies.
What makes Seattle such a natural fit for this latest chapter is not just Ellison’s wealth, but the symbolism. Seattle remains the emotional center of NBA expansion, the city most fans still associate with unfinished business after the SuperSonics left for Oklahoma City in 2008. If the league truly is preparing to restore basketball there, it makes sense that an owner candidate with both enormous financial power and a long-running interest in the NBA would surface again.
There is, however, an important distinction between intrigue and inevitability. The NBA has not announced ownership finalists, and no Seattle franchise has been awarded. Ellison’s name belongs, for now, in the category of prominent possibilities rather than confirmed contenders. Even so, in an expansion process expected to command extraordinary entry fees, very few individuals can match his financial capacity. Forbes’ 2026 billionaires ranking placed Ellison at about $190 billion, underscoring why his candidacy, whenever it surfaces, is immediately taken seriously.
Expansion is about markets, arenas and league strategy, but it is also about ownership gravity. And when the NBA starts inching toward Seattle again, Larry Ellison is the kind of name that makes the process feel a little less theoretical and a little more real.
