NBA commissioner Adam Silver isn’t overly concerned that the increase in power among star players will eventually lead to a lockout, relays Ben Golliver of The Washington Post. TNT analyst Charles Barkley warned of that possibility last month as a backlash against players who try to force their way out of unhappy situations. Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler and Anthony Davis have all employed that tactic over the past year.
However, Silver notes that players have always been able to exercise leverage to get what they want and says holdouts were more common when he started working for the NBA in the 1990s than they are now. Still, he admits there’s a need to create more of a level playing field throughout the league.
A lockout isn’t an immediate threat as the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement runs through 2023/24, with a mutual opt-out in the summer of 2023. Silver said his greater concern is maintaining an audience at a time when many people opt to watch highlights for free on social media rather than paying for cable subscriptions.
“Our competition isn’t just between NBA teams, it’s against every other form of entertainment,” he said. “It’s incumbent upon the players, their union, the owners and the league office to come together to develop the best system for creating competition [on the court]. That will put us in the best position to compete against everything else.”
Silver notes that the league recently changed its timeout rules to create an easier viewing experience. The NBA has also established a wide presence on social media, has experimented with virtual reality broadcasts and has created more League Pass options for casual fans. Instead of paying full price for an entire season, viewers can watch the fourth quarter of a close game for $1.99, and an effort is under way to expand accessibility.
“We’re in an enormously competitive environment where customers dictate what they want,” Silver said. “We want you to be able to see an alert that James Harden is going for 70 points and buy the last five minutes of that game for $0.99 on the spot.”
The commissioner predicts many changes in the media environment by the time the league’s television contract expire in 2025. Amazon, Twitter and Facebook may be incorporated into the next TV deal.
Silver also confirmed that the NBA sent a proposal to the players association allowing high school players to be eligible for the draft in 2022. The NBPA is considering the change, which would include greater access to potential draftees’ medical records.
“It’s the league’s position that if teams are drafting players directly out of high school, having that medical information becomes that much more important,” Silver said. “I’m confident we will ultimately get something done and reach a fair resolution.”
Happy that Silver is holding out himself for medical record disseminiation.
Can he also require and standardize shoeless height and wingspan measurements at draft time, like boxers do. No more Jay Bilas “He has the wingspan of a 6-8 player”. Just say the number like a tape measure does, or better yet, a height/span percentage number.
gov’t shut-down doesn’t mean business as usual in the nba – money first!
Not sure about amazon, but twitter and facebook may not be around any more in 2025, tastes change pretty quickly these days.
How about just making it possible for an average guy making average money to go to a game once in a while?
You want to leverage mobile apps? How about an app that says, game is about to start and there are 4,000 seats empty, you can buy one now for $20?
That would get people engaged. These days the only people who can afford to go to games either go in on season passes like Lotto tickets or who work for big corporations who buy seats and give them out as perks.
This idea that somehow they are going to get “casual fans” to pay to watch 10 minutes of a game is idiotic. How about this, make players play the whole game instead of waiting to the 4th quarter to actually make a game of it?
Right now, at least half of the franchises do not play exciting or competitive basketball, and that will only get worse as they allow direct from high school players who do not know how to play yet, and now we are essentially supposed to pay $75 and up to watch an aggrandized high school game.
I agree with Silver in the 90’s players were way worst with withholding teams, even rookies, that were not stars would hold out on teams. I remember Jimmy Jackson in Dallas, Billups in Boston… Players haven’t as much power now, as the league has many more stars, in the 90’s you were competitive with 1 star, now you need 2-3 to compete, so NBA is in a much better shape & much more entertaining with a much higher level of play now than in the 90’s so hopefully won’t be a lockout to come, I hate them, just wanna see these guys ball.
Much more entertaining? I don’t think so, every other game is a blow out.