NBA Commissioner Adam Silver yesterday discussed issues surrounding the league, saying of the perception that teams are tanking, “I absolutely don't think any team is trying to lose. … In terms of
management, I think there's an absolute legitimate rebuilding process
that goes on among our teams." Silver, in a one-on-one interview which aired on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” added, "I think what's happened in the case of Philadelphia, their strategy has been reduced to a tweet. ... When you sit down with (76ers GM) Sam Hinkie, when they lay out the strategy, when you hear about other avenues they've tried, it's not clear exactly what their alternatives were." Silver said the current revenue split negotiated in the last CBA is “very fair” given the new broadcast deals the NBA signed with ESPN and TNT. He said threats of a labor strike is “premature” even though he takes “everything that (NBPA Exec Dir) Michele Roberts says very seriously.” Silver said that he would advocate for shortening the preseason, beginning the regular season earlier and holding the Finals a little later in June. Silver: “I don't want to go into July." He said conference realignment, an idea recently suggested by Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban, is something the NBA is “looking at." Silver said he wrote his N.Y. Times op-ed column “to try to break the ice a little bit” on the issue of sports gambling. Silver: “Whether it's ESPN with ‘Bracketology,’ whether it's all the lines in every national newspaper on every web service, my point was there's massive, massive sports betting going on in this country. ... My view is if it's going to go on, let's make it transparent, let's bring it into the sunlight so to speak and let’s regulate it." He said, "Let's come up with a framework that makes sense on a national basis, presumably that would allow states to opt-in. ... Most people at the end of the day are not going to go to betting parlors, they're going to bet on smart phones. They’re going to bet on computers and yet another reason why it needs to be regulated.
SILVER BULLET: Silver said he is supportive of players' on-court societal statements despite his preference players not become “billboards” during the game for “their political standpoints.” Silver said he is “on the fence a little bit” as to whether the NBA needs a personal conduct policy. Silver: "Our players have the right to appeal in essence off-court discipline to a neutral arbitrator so there is a check in place already for our players. Whether or not we should be in lock step with the NFL is a different issue for us.” Silver recently met with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in what Silver described as a “casual meeting” that was an already scheduled lunch. Silver: “We're friends, and I think over time, especially when I became deputy commissioner and then commissioner, someone that in certain cases I've looked to for advice. In other cases we've shared notes, shared experiences and this was one, given what the NFL is going through, I was curious to get his inside view on how his view is of the way they handled the situation -- what he might have done differently in hindsight” (“Outside the Lines,” ESPN2, 12/21).
