NBA Commissioner Adam Silver held his annual state-of-the-league address yesterday in Charlotte, and he "largely disputed" a question about small markets' ability to compete with large-market franchises. Silver: "I’m not even sure where the line is anymore on big markets." Overall, his responses to questions suggested that he was "relatively happy with the state of the NBA and believed that the league’s problems could be solved through tweaks to the system" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/17).
Silver addressed a number of topics. Among them:
- On players demanding trades: "No one likes to see an instance where a player is demanding that he be traded when he is still in the middle of a contractual obligation to a team. ... I recognize that there's very little I'm going to do to ever stop that completely. ... I don't like trade demands, and I wish they didn't come."
- On tanking: "I personally don't think it's a winning strategy over the long term to engage in multiple years of rebuilding. ... We've made progress, and we've seen this in other sports as well, there's a mindset that, if you're going to be bad, you might as well be really bad. I believe, personally, that's corrosive for those organizations."
- On the Mavericks' workplace culture: "What was no doubt a horrific situation, I think that there are a lot of positives, if you can say that, or a silver lining has come out of it. ... What was reported directly to me and through the organization is that it was a complete sea change in culture on the business side" (THE DAILY).
