The NBA enters the 2023-24 season with the clear intent of showcasing itself to potential broadcast partners bidding for media rights next summer.

Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery hold the NBA’s U.S. media rights for two more seasons, but the league can begin negotiating with other companies after this season ends. Theoretically, the NBA could enter the 2024-25 season with new deals in place a year before they would start in the fall of 2025.

A key league initiative this season will be making sure its best players are playing as often as possible — especially in marquee matchups. Under more stringent rules, the NBA’s 30 teams can be fined more than $1 million for resting “star” players in certain scenarios.

Another key element that could add media value this year is the NBA’s new in-season tournament. If the games provide enough drama, the tournament could be sold as its own broadcast package in the next set of deals.

Streamers In The Mix

In an effort to expand its revenue generation, the NBA may look to sell more packages consisting of fewer games. That could give incumbent partners Disney and WBD — who air games on ESPN/ABC and TNT, respectively — the chance to retain some rights while also bringing in new broadcasters. 

Interested parties reportedly include Comcast-owned NBC and Amazon’s Prime Video. Sources told Front Office Sports that Amazon wants to create an exclusive night of streaming NBA games similar to what the NFL currently has with “Thursday Night Football.”

Other streamers like Apple and Google’s YouTube could look to get in the mix, too.

The San Antonio Spurs’ new era begins in earnest this week with the regular-season debut of rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama. 

Wembanyama’s 7-foot, 3.5-inch frame and sleek, guard-like skills have instantly transformed his franchise’s expectations on the court — and triggered a similarly swift reversal of fortune in terms of media exposure and ticket sales.

The team will be on national TV at least 19 times this season, up from just four times last year, thanks in large part to the presence of this year’s top overall draft pick. The Spurs also received 4,000 new season-ticket deposits and generated the largest number of overall season-ticket accounts in franchise history. 

And after finishing 25th in NBA attendance last year, a return to the top 10 this year is likely, thanks to their new star.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, who previously guided top-overall draft picks David Robinson and Tim Duncan to Hall of Fame careers, said the pressure on Wembanyama is far greater due to social media — but isn’t worried. “He’s got character. He has got a sense of humor. He’s intelligent. He knows how to handle [the pressure].”

The new season also brings the opening of the Spurs’ new $500 million practice center and mixed-use campus, the Rock at La Cantera, as well as the increasing exploration of a new downtown venue when the current lease for Frost Bank Center expires in 2032.

Dealing With the Spotlight

The Spurs are looking to further leverage this pivotal moment in team history by hiring a full-time behavioral economist, Raghavi Nimmala.

“We’ve seen this huge influx of fans, and we now have more new [tickets] accounts than we did old and renewing accounts. And for the first time, more than 50% of the new accounts are Gen Z and millennials. So everything we’ve learned to this point about how to treat a season-ticket holder is out the window,” Jordan Kolosey, Spurs VP of business strategy innovation, told Front Office Sports.

It’s no secret that the NBA wants to expand beyond its current 30 franchises sooner than later.

During last season’s NBA Finals, league commissioner Adam Silver specifically mentioned Las Vegas and Seattle as two cities — among others — under consideration for expansion teams. He also said the NBA would shift its focus to expansion once its next set of media rights deals were completed — which could be as soon as mid-2024.

Las Vegas has added NFL, NHL, and WNBA teams in recent years as it becomes an epicenter for professional sports. The city is almost assuredly getting an MLB team in the A’s, as well, and next month, Formula 1 will race for the first time in Sin City. It’s not surprising that the NBA would want in on such a hot market.

Despite Las Vegas already boasting T-Mobile Arena — home to the Golden Knights and many UFC events — the Oak View Group hopes to lead a $10 billion development with an NBA arena as its centerpiece.

From an ownership perspective, LeBron James has long expressed his desire to be part of a Las Vegas ownership group, but may face stiff competition from Shaquille O’Neal, who says he wants a potential Vegas team all to himself.

In the Northwest, Seattle is more than ready to welcome a return of the NBA.

A second preseason game in Seattle in as many years is stoking speculation that the league is ready for a franchise again after the SuperSonics moved to Oklahoma City in 2008 and became the Thunder. The newly developed Climate Pledge Arena, currently home of the NHL’s Kraken and WNBA’s Storm, would be a logical fit for an expansion NBA team.

Beyond The Border

While league expansion is a priority for the league, so is growing internationally. 

The Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves tipped off the preseason in Abu Dhabi earlier this month as part of a multiyear deal with the UAE. The Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic will play a regular-season game in Mexico City on Nov. 9 — the NBA’s 32nd game in Mexico since 1992.

Also up for consideration: NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum says the league would consider playing a regular-season game at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, home of soccer giants Real Madrid.

The NBA already boasts the largest player salaries in U.S. pro team sports — an average of nearly $10.8 million — but is now looking at the next major milestone: $100 million annual player salaries.

LeBron James and Stephen Curry each already exceed $100 million in yearly earnings when factoring in endorsements and other off-court activities. 

But amid continually escalating salary caps and on the cusp of riches from a new set of media rights contracts, the league is now less than a decade away from making nine-figure base compensation a reality.

The current labor deal between the NBA and National Basketball Players Association limits the annual jump in the salary cap to 10% in order to smooth out the influx of new revenue — an effort to avoid issues from the cap’s 34% bump in 2016 following the last media rights deals.

Yet with projected increases to the cap and existing rules surrounding supermax contracts, NBA players will exceed $80 million base salary as soon as 2029, and potentially reach $100 million three years after that.

It was only in 1996 that NBA players began to sign $100 million contracts covering multiple seasons, with Washington Bullets star Juwan Howard becoming the first to do so in a seven-year pact.

In the meantime, new salary thresholds continue to be set with Jaylen Brown’s historic five-year deal this past summer with Boston worth $304 million, and Damian Lillard’s contract extension with Milwaukee that currently projects him to become the NBA’s first player above $60 million in the 2026-27 season. 

Lillard’s status as a salary trailblazer, however, could be challenged by his Bucks teammate, two-time league MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who agreed to a blockbuster three-year contract extension on Monday that could be worth as much as $186 million depending on the league’s future salary cap.