LeBron James has incessantly been connected to the NBA’s long-rumored enlargement team in Las Vegas, however he is not the one participant in probably proudly owning a team there. In October, Hall-of-Famer Shaquille O’Neal expressed passion in operating that team. … and doing so on his personal phrases. “I would like to have my own group,” O’Neal advised The Messenger at a Las Vegas-based charity tournament. “I know Vegas hasn’t been awarded an NBA team yet, but if they ever get to a point where they are awarded a team, I would like to be a part of that. I don’t want to partner up with nobody. I want it all for myself.”
On Sunday, alternatively, O’Neal sang a reasonably other track. “If there’s ever an NBA team that’s going to come here, I would definitely like to be involved,” O’Neal mentioned, in accordance to The Messenger’s Arash Markazai. “With LeBron, without LeBron, I just want to be involved.”Â
In 2022, James overtly campaigned for a potential Las Vegas team after enjoying a preseason game there. James up to now partnered with the Fenway Sports Group to acquire a 2% stake in British football team Liverpool in 2011, so one rumor that has continued since is that James would paintings with that staff to acquire an NBA enlargement team.
James and O’Neal had been as soon as teammates with the Cleveland Cavaliers, even though that partnership lasted for most effective the 2009-10 season. After O’Neal retired, he changed into a minority proprietor of the Sacramento Kings from 2013 to 2022. He these days works as a broadcaster on TNT’s Inside the NBA, whilst James remains to be an lively participant for the Los Angeles Lakers, and possibly would want to retire sooner than taking on every other team.
As a minority proprietor with the Kings, O’Neal isn’t identified to have wielded any entrance place of job energy. James would possibly need to have a point of keep watch over over the basketball operations of any team he purchases, if now not outright governorship. After Michael Jordan’s sale of the Charlotte Hornets, no participant these days holds majority possession or governorship of an NBA franchise. Several avid gamers, equivalent to Dwyane Wade with the Utah Jazz and Grant Hill with the Atlanta Hawks, these days personal minority stakes with groups, and there’s no explanation why a couple of former avid gamers could not personal minority stakes in a unmarried team.
For now, the NBA is all in favour of finishing a brand new nationwide media rights deal. Expansion will possibly extra firmly input the dialog as soon as that deal is finished, with Las Vegas and Seattle being the 2 likeliest markets to obtain groups. O’Neal and James are each in becoming a member of possession teams, they usually can even achieve this in combination, however, for now, it’s some distance too early to expect who will in fact keep watch over any new groups when the mud settles.