Before the league made the official announcement, the NBA office first discussed with the management of the Glare team whether they agreed to switch to the Eastern Conference next season.
Wang Fuxi convened an internal meeting with senior executives and immediately informed Gan Guoyang to make a decision.
In fact, when the Glare was first established, Gan Guoyang considered that such a situation would occur.
After all, in the 80s, there were precedents with the Heat and Timberwolves; the reason then was to expand NBA’s appeal in new markets, letting popular teams like the Bulls, Lakers, and Trail Blazers play more in Miami and Minnesota, allowing local audiences to buy tickets and watch games.
This time, the reason is not to develop the Las Vegas basketball market but to hope that the Glare moving to the Eastern Conference will energize the entire Eastern region, which is sluggish and lacks competitiveness.
Although the Boston Celtics won the championship last season, besides the Celtics, there was no impressive team in the entire Eastern Conference.
The Celtics almost swept their way to the finals, and from the regular season to the playoffs, Eastern Conference games lacked highlights, and from attendance to viewership, they were far worse than the Western Conference.
During the Hornets team’s playoff game, the home game’s attendance was less than 50%, creating the worst playoff attendance record in recent years, which worried the league greatly.
The Hornets were originally a popular team full of hope and competitiveness, very popular with fans in Charlotte.
But their owner George Sheen was involved in a rape case in 1997, severely damaging the team’s reputation in that city, coupled with a series of bad team operations, leading to a sharp drop in popularity and inability to compete with local college basketball teams.
In the 2001 season, Sheen applied to move the Hornets to Memphis but lost the bid to the Vancouver Grizzlies.
After this season, Sheen applied to move the team to Louisville, but Rick Pitino, the head coach of NCAA’s University of Louisville, publicly opposed professional basketball coming to Louisville.
Pitino’s failed experience in the NBA led him to hold hostility against the NBA, and the Hornets’ plans to move to Louisville fell through.
Eventually, the Hornets chose New Orleans, a city which nearly 30 years ago had an NBA team, the New Orleans Jazz, which moved to Salt Lake City in 1974.
As part of the relocation plan, David Stern proposed that the Las Vegas Glare move to the Eastern Conference next season to alleviate the stagnant atmosphere in the East.
Glare’s strong popularity and powerful earning ability made David Stern highly value this Las Vegas team.
NBA has continuously expanded over the years, growing from 23 teams in the 1987-1988 season to 30 teams in about a decade, seemingly thriving but actually somewhat struggling to digest the growth.
Several teams have considered relocating, like the Grizzlies and Hornets who have moved, and in 1994, due to financial crises, the Timberwolves almost moved to New Orleans, resulting in the peculiar name combination like New Orleans Timberwolves.
Currently, the situation for Seattle Supersonics isn’t very good either. There are always significant disputes between the local government and the team regarding stadium and public spending because NBA’s venue requirements are increasingly high, but many places are unwilling to allocate public funds for stadium construction, affecting team operations.
In short, David Stern can see that post-expansion, the NBA has many issues, especially financial problems, troubling small and medium teams.
Initially agreeing to bring the Glare to Las Vegas was partly to hope that it could support various teams as a blood bag; now, directly sending it to the East to play more Eastern Conference games could bring more box office to Eastern teams.
For Gan Guoyang, whether playing in the East or West doesn’t affect their championship pursuit, and moving to the Eastern Conference might be even more favorable since only the Celtics are worth noting as a competitor.
The main issue lies in the schedule arrangement. Las Vegas is in Nevada, and if most games are in the Eastern Conference, it means the team’s away trips will increase significantly.
This isn’t very friendly to teams with a generally older roster, apart from that, there isn’t much else.
Moreover, from a commercial perspective, playing more Eastern Conference games could further enhance Glare’s influence across America, expanding the Eastern market, particularly benefiting Las Vegas’s tourism industry.
Therefore, after a discussion among the management, they quickly agreed to the league’s arrangement, and Glare is willing to become a member of the Eastern Conference next season, replacing the former Charlotte Hornets.
Once this news was released, it wasn’t just O’Neal who felt uncomfortable; the entire Eastern Conference was in an uproar.
Glare coming to the East means not only Ah Gan but Jordan as well!
The former two big players moving east has all the previously stagnant Eastern Conference teams feeling anxious.
Teams like the Celtics and Heat issued statements, strongly opposing Las Vegas Glare becoming part of the Eastern Conference.
But management’s ideas don’t represent the thoughts of players and fans, nor do they represent municipal ideas.
Fans of various teams have expressed welcoming Glare to the East to stir the stagnant waters, and to challenge the Boston Celtics.
Local governments also hope Glare comes to the East to play more games with local teams, boost the local basketball market and consumption.
After Jordan, Ewing, and Yao Ming joined Glare, their jerseys sold extremely well across America, with many places even selling out.
The will of the public is unyielding; after management tried to voice objections twice without a response, and facing ridicule from many for Eastern Conference teams not striving for progress and poor team management, they had no choice but to shut up.