Adam Silver signs extension to the end of the decade

[MalagaBulls]

He has grown the game tremendously on the financial side, so there is that.

Read on Twitter

[HomoSapien]

Teams will be averaging 200 before he retires.

[samwana]

At least it wasn't a secret extension

[ImSlower]

I think it's absolutely impossible for a fanbase to embrace and support a commissioner. I gleefully hated David Stern for much of my Bulls fandom. Now I wish he was back. Once Silver is gone and some turd takes his place, we'll all hate that dude too. Does anyone like Goodell? Nah.

Anyway, that was my goodwill regarding Silver. He looks like a ghoul and I loathe these 150 point games and mercenary player power and what the NBA has become, but he is trying to compete with the unstoppable force that is the NFL, online gambling, and an increasingly impatient youth who get bored after 20 seconds on their phones. There's no going back to 'old school basketball'. So good for him for keeping the NBA relevant even if I hate/love my second favorite sport. I'm increasingly pessimistic that baseball will continue to wither.

[Dez]

Gross.

[t-time]

Looking forward to teams averaging 200 points a game soon, and gambling odds being transmitted directly to my brain.

[aguifs]

The game sucks but money matters... so let it be...

[step]

He has grown the game tremendously on the financial side, so there is that.

And how much of that just would of happened with anyone else though?

Even ESPN's piece just rang hollow.

Silver, 61, has driven some dramatic initiatives, including the introduction of the play-in and in-season tournaments, player participation legislation, draft lottery reform

https://www.espn.com.au/nba/story/_/id/39403911/sources-nba-commissioner-adam-silver-finalizing-extension

There are some worrying signs in some other sports that new TV deals may not result in the hand over fist growth like before. Though, this probably will be easily masked with expansion & possible more international involvement.

[RSP83]

Silver have been very successful in making the game relevant to current and new generation of audience. He wins players heart, by making the league more and more about the players. I think players personality is more highlighted today, and that's what this new social media era is all about. I don't like it, not really into those aspects of the NBA, but I can understand it. The NBA culture has a lot more cringe stuff, especially when you put players at center of your branding and marketing.

[dougthonus]

I don't know why NBA fans have hated their commissioners.

Stern/Silver have combined to grow the NBA from the verge of bankruptcy to the 2nd biggest sports league by franchise value and knocking on the NFL's door. That's absolutely insane when you think about it. If you factor in racial attitudes in this country and that the players are the face of the game far more than other sports (ie, not wearing hats / helmets / gear), it's doing so with at least some handicap as well.

The NBA has consistently been, by far, the most innovative of the major sports leagues in being willing to make changes, and almost all their changes have been gold, even when they initially had terrible fan support prior to implementation. No one wanted the play in tournament or the in-season tournament, but it's already obvious that both of these were huge improvements. The overall shift away from big dudes mugging each other and best center wins into a dynamic long range shooting and dunking game that highlights skills and makes driveway warriors dream bigger was also a big win for excitement and has grown the skill level massively.

In more minor issues, the NBA has been the most progressive on social issues of all the leagues as well to the extent you care about such a thing, and the only league that has helped grow a professional woman's sport that's been at least quasi successful. They've also come up with a system for a viable minor league that didn't previously exist and good pathways for players to play in it.

Given the NBA also has a weird structure where the teams have very different desires, they've also done a reasonable job of moving the needle time and again to help smaller market teams be more competitive. They'll probably never reach the NFL level of being able to do that just due to the nature of TV money not being all nationalized, but they've done a reasonable job of slowly shrinking the gap between what big money teams and everyone else can do.

I don't know what anyone would want out of their commissioner that Silver/Stern haven't provided (maybe if you disagree with their social policies then you might hate these guys for that and ignore the actual work they do).

[kodo]

It's interesting to see the new NBA fans. I've been a hardcore fan my entire life & player, my brother in his 40s just started being a fan this season. He knows quite a lot already about specific players and a ton of stats, I'm very impressed. But he doesn't watch games. He checks stats, watches highlights, keeps up w/ the scores, and most importantly gambles. Perhaps that's the future generation of NBA fans. One thing about this kind of fan is that he'll never spend money on cable to watch games live or attend live.

[DuckIII]

Teams will be averaging 200 before he retires.

I like a lot about Adam Silver. But this one negative of constantly pandering to the least knowledgeable and most casual fans of the game is ultimately going to ruin the NBA for me.

But his job is to make money for the owners and catering to the superficial and ignorant is almost always the money move when it comes to the entertainment industry.

If the art of basketball gets lost at the pro level so be it. I’ll just be like one of those unbearable baseball purists I guess.

[DuckIII]

I don't know why NBA fans have hated their commissioners.

Because people think it’s cool and give it no real thought.

[Ice Man]

I don't know why NBA fans have hated their commissioners.

Duck got it exactly right. Every fan of every sport badmouths their commissioners. It's a tradition, like booing Jerry Krause. But it's a tradition that doesn't make much sense in the NBA, because unquestionably David Stern and then Adam Silver have been enormously successful at their jobs.

[aguifs]

The game is boring af. Sooner or later, the price will be paid.
I hate LeBron but after his retirement, the league will be in trouble.
The quality of the spectacle is poor and there will be no more drama queen.

[League Circles]

I don't know why NBA fans have hated their commissioners.

Stern/Silver have combined to grow the NBA from the verge of bankruptcy to the 2nd biggest sports league by franchise value and knocking on the NFL's door. That's absolutely insane when you think about it. If you factor in racial attitudes in this country and that the players are the face of the game far more than other sports (ie, not wearing hats / helmets / gear), it's doing so with at least some handicap as well.

The NBA has consistently been, by far, the most innovative of the major sports leagues in being willing to make changes, and almost all their changes have been gold, even when they initially had terrible fan support prior to implementation. No one wanted the play in tournament or the in-season tournament, but it's already obvious that both of these were huge improvements. The overall shift away from big dudes mugging each other and best center wins into a dynamic long range shooting and dunking game that highlights skills and makes driveway warriors dream bigger was also a big win for excitement and has grown the skill level massively.

In more minor issues, the NBA has been the most progressive on social issues of all the leagues as well to the extent you care about such a thing, and the only league that has helped grow a professional woman's sport that's been at least quasi successful. They've also come up with a system for a viable minor league that didn't previously exist and good pathways for players to play in it.

Given the NBA also has a weird structure where the teams have very different desires, they've also done a reasonable job of moving the needle time and again to help smaller market teams be more competitive. They'll probably never reach the NFL level of being able to do that just due to the nature of TV money not being all nationalized, but they've done a reasonable job of slowly shrinking the gap between what big money teams and everyone else can do.

I don't know what anyone would want out of their commissioner that Silver/Stern haven't provided (maybe if you disagree with their social policies then you might hate these guys for that and ignore the actual work they do).

I think that most fans don't at all care about the general expansion of the fan market. Nobody who is into basketball feels regret that only x million fans are into it with them instead of y million.

The racial attitudes you speak of may be a handicap but also an advantage.

A lot of the changes have been poor and IMO the game is significantly less exciting than it was when it was more physical and less of a long distance affair.

Not sure the WNBA or G league could be referred to as viable or successful. IIRC they are heavily subsidized by the NBA revenue.

As far as being progressive on social issues, a lot of people don't want to mix their politics and entertainment, even those who strongly support such politics.

As far as teams having different desires and everything, IMO that's largely a function of the high disparities in team payrolls, which Silver has a lot of responsibility for.

Basketball is, on its face, a far more marketable and more enjoyable sport to watch than baseball or football. It should be far ahead of those sports IMO. The fact that it isn't is at least a minor indictment of Silver IMO. Football is super violent in a very harmful way to players, who are too crowded and covered up on the field and have too short of careers without any of the glory of playoff series. Baseball is slow and boring with way too many games. The only reason those sports are or were ahead of basketball is time / history. Basketball should be, and will be ahead of them, despite Silver's mediocre work, not because of it.

[dougthonus]

The racial attitudes you speak of may be a handicap but also an advantage.

There's no way this is an economic advantage.

A lot of the changes have been poor and IMO the game is significantly less exciting than it was when it was more physical and less of a long distance affair.

I disagree. The game is way more exciting today than it used to be to me. The offensive skillsets on display are much better. 90s basketball, outside of having Jordan in Chicago, was an absolute crapfest. It was all clear outs and isolations. The implementation of zone defenses and removing hand checking were both tremendously positive changes from a rules perspective.

Not sure the WNBA or G league could be referred to as viable or successful. IIRC they are heavily subsidized by the NBA revenue.

I agree, I don't think they're revenue producers, just that if you care about the growth of the game in different areas, tehy represent unique growth that hasn't existed elsewhere.

As far as being progressive on social issues, a lot of people don't want to mix their politics and entertainment, even those who strongly support such politics.

Also agree. I don't think it's a value and some people may hate them for this as much as love them, but I do kind of like that they have made some stands here.

As far as teams having different desires and everything, IMO that's largely a function of the high disparities in team payrolls, which Silver has a lot of responsibility for.

It's largely a function of different revenue, which is largely a function of market size and local TV deals and market location. It's a contentious argument every CBA because it's small markets arguing with large markets arguing with players. I think given the actual situation, they've done about as reasonable a job as they could in reigning it in with the various tax aprons. In 5 years, the 2nd apron will effectively act as a hard cap which has been mission impossible for the league forever, but they've backed their way into the same thing.

Basketball is, on its face, a far more marketable and more enjoyable sport to watch than baseball or football. It should be far ahead of those sports IMO. The fact that it isn't is at least a minor indictment of Silver IMO. Football is super violent in a very harmful way to players, who are too crowded and covered up on the field and have too short of careers without any of the glory of playoff series. Baseball is slow and boring with way too many games. The only reason those sports are or were ahead of basketball is time / history. Basketball should be, and will be ahead of them, despite Silver's mediocre work, not because of it.

I think this is naive and ignores where the NBA was coming from. NBA franchises are near 2x as valuable as MLB franchises right now which is Silver's job. That's true despite playing half the games and having a season that collides with two other major sports unlike MLB. They're knocking on the door of the NFL in terms of franchise values which is incredible given the head start they had.

Your view of the sport being more marketable is unattached to anything of relevance. What is relevant are the thoughts and opinions of the country, and when Stern started, the NBA franchises were worth less than half of baseball/football franchises. Over these guys reigns, they've grown probably at 4x the speed which includes changing the minds of other people.

There is nothing inherent that makes any sport more popular or watchable than another sport except the whims of what people think is interesting and convincing people to change those whims.

[League Circles]

The racial attitudes you speak of may be a handicap but also an advantage.

There's no way this is an economic advantage.

A lot of the changes have been poor and IMO the game is significantly less exciting than it was when it was more physical and less of a long distance affair.

I disagree. The game is way more exciting today than it used to be to me. The offensive skillsets on display are much better. 90s basketball, outside of having Jordan in Chicago, was an absolute crapfest. It was all clear outs and isolations. The implementation of zone defenses and removing hand checking were both tremendously positive changes from a rules perspective.

Not sure the WNBA or G league could be referred to as viable or successful. IIRC they are heavily subsidized by the NBA revenue.

I agree, I don't think they're revenue producers, just that if you care about the growth of the game in different areas, tehy represent unique growth that hasn't existed elsewhere.

As far as being progressive on social issues, a lot of people don't want to mix their politics and entertainment, even those who strongly support such politics.

Also agree. I don't think it's a value and some people may hate them for this as much as love them, but I do kind of like that they have made some stands here.

As far as teams having different desires and everything, IMO that's largely a function of the high disparities in team payrolls, which Silver has a lot of responsibility for.

It's largely a function of different revenue, which is largely a function of market size and local TV deals and market location. It's a contentious argument every CBA because it's small markets arguing with large markets arguing with players. I think given the actual situation, they've done about as reasonable a job as they could in reigning it in with the various tax aprons. In 5 years, the 2nd apron will effectively act as a hard cap which has been mission impossible for the league forever, but they've backed their way into the same thing.

Basketball is, on its face, a far more marketable and more enjoyable sport to watch than baseball or football. It should be far ahead of those sports IMO. The fact that it isn't is at least a minor indictment of Silver IMO. Football is super violent in a very harmful way to players, who are too crowded and covered up on the field and have too short of careers without any of the glory of playoff series. Baseball is slow and boring with way too many games. The only reason those sports are or were ahead of basketball is time / history. Basketball should be, and will be ahead of them, despite Silver's mediocre work, not because of it.

I think this is naive and ignores where the NBA was coming from. NBA franchises are near 2x as valuable as MLB franchises right now which is Silver's job. That's true despite playing half the games and having a season that collides with two other major sports unlike MLB. They're knocking on the door of the NFL in terms of franchise values which is incredible given the head start they had.

Your view of the sport being more marketable is unattached to anything of relevance. What is relevant are the thoughts and opinions of the country, and when Stern started, the NBA franchises were worth less than half of baseball/football franchises. Over these guys reigns, they've grown probably at 4x the speed which includes changing the minds of other people.

There is nothing inherent that makes any sport more popular or watchable than another sport except the whims of what people think is interesting and convincing people to change those whims.

If your measure of Silver's job is franchise valuations he's done great. My measure is how good the product is, how much I'm willing to pay for it. Franchise valuations are about as relevant as super-yacht prices IMO. NBA franchises are bought as toys by billionaires, and will undoubtedly one day decrease in value due to many factors. One of which may very well be a superior basketball league as a competitor.

Basketball is inherently superior to watch due to things like far fewer stoppages of play, far fewer players to track on the court/field, etc. Baseball obviously has too many games, football obviously too few.

Some people most definitely want to deliberately support blackness in entertainment. Whether or not that dynamic outweighs the counter impact of racism is impossible to quantify.

There's nothing inherently stopping Silver from trying to convince the owners that more equal playing field for team payrolls would have a positive impact on the product and therefore long term revenues.

[dougthonus]

If your measure of Silver's job is franchise valuations he's done great.

In the end, this is Silver's job.

My measure is how good the product is, how much I'm willing to pay for it. Franchise valuations are about as relevant as super-yacht prices IMO. NBA franchises are bought as toys by billionaires, and will undoubtedly one day decrease in value due to many factors. One of which may very well be a superior basketball league as a competitor.

Franchise values are pretty directly tied to revenue which is also directly tied to how much people will pay for the product. You individually may not want to pay as much, but that does not seem to be true on the whole for people.

Basketball is inherently superior to watch due to things like far fewer stoppages of play, far fewer players to track on the court/field, etc. Baseball obviously has too many games, football obviously too few.

Again, these are all just your opinions and not inherent advantage. You could probably name tons of sports that have these features and are not popular. Historically these factors aren't what have made sports popular either. It's literally a thing you made up which also has no evidence to support it, and historically has evidence going against it.

There's nothing inherently stopping Silver from trying to convince the owners that more equal playing field for team payrolls would have a positive impact on the product and therefore long term revenues.

There are a lot of things that make this extraordinarily difficult (potentially impossible) if you actually follow the negotiations, and to suggest otherwise just means you are completely ignorant of the various factions, why they exist, and what they desire.

[League Circles]

If your measure of Silver's job is franchise valuations he's done great.

In the end, this is Silver's job.

My measure is how good the product is, how much I'm willing to pay for it. Franchise valuations are about as relevant as super-yacht prices IMO. NBA franchises are bought as toys by billionaires, and will undoubtedly one day decrease in value due to many factors. One of which may very well be a superior basketball league as a competitor.

Franchise values are pretty directly tied to revenue which is also directly tied to how much people will pay for the product. You individually may not want to pay as much, but that does not seem to be true on the whole for people.

Basketball is inherently superior to watch due to things like far fewer stoppages of play, far fewer players to track on the court/field, etc. Baseball obviously has too many games, football obviously too few.

Again, these are all just your opinions and not inherent advantage. You could probably name tons of sports that have these features and are not popular. Historically these factors aren't what have made sports popular either. It's literally a thing you made up which also has no evidence to support it, and historically has evidence going against it.

There's nothing inherently stopping Silver from trying to convince the owners that more equal playing field for team payrolls would have a positive impact on the product and therefore long term revenues.

There are a lot of things that make this extraordinarily difficult (potentially impossible) if you actually follow the negotiations, and to suggest otherwise just means you are completely ignorant of the various factions, why they exist, and what they desire.

In the short term, on paper, Silver has obviously done a good job. That's not how I was grading him. He's done a good job tapping new markets and new revenue sources while degrading the fundamental product IMO. Maybe I'm wrong. Franchise valuations should reflect profits, not revenue. I'm not sure how those look but it's worth noting. It's quite possible that we now have more fans willing to pay less each than we previously had or could have with different policies.

I think stoppages of play and rough frequency of games are pretty common sense big levers for enjoyability. I disagree that it's just some made up personal preference. I don't think history means a lot here because baseball and even football had such an enormous chronological head start. Momentum can take a LONG time to change.

There's nothing difficult or impossible about Silver TRYING TO CONVINCE owners of the benefits of a more equal playing field for team payrolls (which I'm unaware of much evidence for). Currently the lowest payroll team is paying like 62% of what the highest payroll team is paying, and I believe that's before luxury tax. That's absurd to begin with on it's face, and when you consider that the lowest payroll team is actually currently better in record than the high team, it shines a pretty bright light on the insanity of the NBA salary rules.

Basically the entire concept of "blow it up", "rebuild", "burn it down" is all sourced from the insane salary rules. The idea that when you're not good you need to (and should) take 5 years to turn things around is a direct function of the easy to identify flaws that Silver has done virtually nothing to fix IMO. I'm not ignorant of the various factions and their interests, I just don't think Silver has done a very good job of getting the various factions to see a feasible common long term vision of success.