Practically, however, this is slowing down the timetable for stateside expansion. Silver has repeatedly pushed off the expansion idea, and he and his top executives are deeply involved in this European enterprise. There is a belief within the league that Silver would wait until after the Boston Celtics’ sale, which will surely set a new record for price and reset the possible cost of an expansion franchise, before beginning an NBA expansion process. But the Celtics’ sale is moving slowly and expansion isn’t moving at all right now.