Today "marks a full year in charge" for the "more collaborative-than-combative" NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. Asked to grade the first year of Silver's tenure, Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban said, "A-plus. Love everything he's done. He has handled every obstacle perfectly." Silver has "much to do in Year 2," such as finding "the right formula to phase in the new TV money and keep the salary cap from a wild spike of its own." He also needs to negotiate "a workable truce between the various big- and small-market teams haggling behind the scenes over the future of revenue sharing" and address the "looming prospect of contentious labor negotiations" with new NBPA Exec Dir Michele Roberts (ESPN.com, 1/30).
An ESPN.com roundtable addressed Silver's first year on the job. Kevin Arnovitz: "He's been a thoughtful presence while navigating some thorny issues." Michael Wallace: "Silver has been responsive, accountable and largely accessible on many levels." Brian Windhorst: "He's open to new ideas, which has endeared him to those fatigued by David Stern's frequent unilateral edicts." As for Silver's greatest accomplishment outside of handling the Donald Sterling issue, Larry Coon wrote, "More transparency. The league has never been so open about the way it does things and the way it responds to the public and media." Others pointed to the NBA's recent TV contract (ESPN.com, 1/29).
