NBA commissioner Adam Silver was as surprised as anyone when news broke that Luka Doncic had been traded to the Lakers two weeks ago, writes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. At his annual All-Star Weekend press conference, Silver said he wasn’t given advance notice from anyone about the deal.
He also refused to second guess the Mavericks, who have received an enormous amount of criticism for parting with Doncic, especially from their own fans.
“I can say one thing for sure: Whether or not history will ultimately judge this as a smart trade, they did what they thought was in the best interest of their organization,” Silver said. “I have absolutely no knowledge or belief there were any ulterior motives, no doubt in my mind that the Dumont-Adelson families bought that team to keep it in Dallas. I have no doubt whatsoever that they’re committed to the long-term success of that franchise.”
Silver added that he’s “empathetic” toward Dallas fans who are upset about the deal, which looks even worse since Anthony Davis was injured in his first game with the team.
“Time will tell whether it was a smart trade,” Silver said. “But they should believe in their organization.”
Silver addressed several other topics during his meeting with reporters, according to Reynolds:
- The Hornets contacted the league office after the Lakers rescinded their trade for Mark Williams, but Charlotte hasn’t filed a formal appeal. “Let’s see what Charlotte decides to do here,” Silver said. “But I think either way, it’s gotten our attention. We understand that in the back and forth of teams and trades that the extent we can reduce uncertainty, that’s a positive thing.”
- The league is waiting for a response from Timberwolves majority owner Glen Taylor after an arbitration panel ruled in favor of Marc Lore and Alex Rodriguez this week. Silver said he doesn’t see any reason why the sale of the team wouldn’t be approved, but he doesn’t want to speak for the Board of Governors. “I mean, that’s Glen’s decision to make,” Silver said. “I haven’t talked to him directly about that. I think, though, that A-Rod, certainly Marc Lore, are well-known to the league at this point. They’ve already been vetted and approved as minority owners. I think they understood that the league had no role in this arbitration. That was something they had agreed to as part of their purchase agreement.”
- The league decided against a repeat of last year’s All-Star Weekend shooting contest between Stephen Curry and WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu, with Silver explaining, “Last year was so magical, that competition, that it started to feel forced. And I think there was concern from all of us that we just weren’t feeling it.”
- Silver cited progress in the NBA’s television ratings, although he admitted that he’d like to see them higher. He added that the league measures its audience in several ways and is enjoying “record popularity” on social media.
How can you truly measure by social media? Seems stupid because you can just have your corporate people message positive things and make multiple accounts. You should be measuring popularity by crowd attendance. Viewership ratings are hard with all the streaming but still better than social media.
Theres lots of metrics that measure engagement across all of twitter and stuff. You can see how viral NBA related posts are and total numbers of posts.
The decline in NBA viewership is significant. ESPN is feeling pain from overpaying for media rights. Disney is not doing great. Cable cord cutters killing them. Streaming $$$ don’t produce anything close to the $$$$ that the cable tv model does. Not sure ESPN is gonna be able to outbid everybody for next round of media rights. Bad product that people ain’t watching. Bad product that is getting harder to find exactly where you can even watch a game, since you have so many media rights partners.
NBA is trying to copy college sports but people don’t care about players who don’t play every game and skip lots without a good reason when they’re paid so much. College they’re paid now too, but they at least have drive to make even more $ still and go pro. NBA is coming close to MLB with so many albatross contracts that teams regret giving out and then don’t compete for years.
College basketball just might be worse than the NBA right now. Talent level is absolutely horrific. Now, some are getting paid fat $$$. Transfer portal (free agency) was last straw that NONE of the players care anything about the school they represent. Tradition no longer exists.
College game was ruined by ESPN decades ago. They made Conference games meaningless. If you ain’t Power 4, it don’t matter if you go undefeated in Conference play. Lose in Conference tournament and no NCAA bid for you. Why?? Because ESPN wanted to have multiple “miracle” endings with a tourney bid on the line for big tv ratings. Rather than have 1 NCAA Tournament …. You have dozens.
@barry, I think your early on the absolute assumptions on college and traditions. It is evolving and will continue to erode no doubt. before the portal, it was the top players that really cared less of the college and more about best path to NBA, e.g, Kentucky and Duke are prime examples. the kids that are 1 and done, for sure could careless of their college tradition. I do think the portal has allowed more kids to put themselves in a better position to succeed and that is positive when talking about athletes that may not have education as a primary foundation. and yes as a result this increases the tradition neutral you stated. Ultimately as with almost everything the fans are the ones who suffer the most. Money has diluted the love of the game for us.
@Very Barry it’s interesting looking at NBA ratings and hearing the excuses of cord cutting when you can look at a sport like Formula One that’s booming in the US which has a lot of similarities. Both sports are driven by stars who dictate success or failure with a lot of stars changing teams. There is also a lot of drama and content focused on outside of the actual competitions. F1 doesn’t even get the benefit of prime time where half the races are in the mornings or the middle of the night. The NBA ratings will improve when their content is worth watching.
@black ace … Cord cutting is killing revenue $$$$$. ESPN gets more than $9 for every cable subscriber who has access to the channel. In the neighborhood of $5 per for ESPN2. They get that for EVERY subscriber EVERY month. Streaming can’t replicate that. Streaming can’t get you to pay during the offseason.
The pipeline for producing American basketball superstars is nearly dry. Steph, LeBron, Kevin Durant, etc. are at the end. Anthony Edwards, Jayson Tatum, Tyrese Haliburton, etc. and the next American stars ain’t nowhere near the level of the past era. The best talent ain’t from here. Jokic, Giannis, Embiid, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Wemby, Luka Doncic, Sabonis, etc. ain’t from USA. How do you improve American television ratings with a bad product that has “imported” the best players in the league from other countries?????
It’s better than watching dudes in identical cars drive in circles for 5 hours.
Nothing of long term significance to a professional sports league is measured by social media engagement. But when the measures that are significant aren’t pointing in the “right” direction, a league will prop up whatever it feels might be.
Nevertheless, the growth of a professional sports league has and always will be tied to its ability to sustainably grow interest in its underlying sport, not merely its ability to increase the engagements with its events and moments. TV viewership (plus, or including, first party streaming viewership) of games probably best reflects the level of interest in the sport. Game attendance too, but more other factors can go into game attendance. Engagements below this level, even if they generate revenue, may bear very little relationship to interest in the sport.
I agree with some of this but TV viewership doesn’t seem like the right barometer for success. Tons of people are illegally streaming games.
The TV deals in dozens of cities are a mess, we couldn’t watch the Nuggets here in Denver for five years including the championship season. Despite that NBA fandom is still super strong.
The NBA is a highlights sport way more than the other big three sports, and people share /watch poster dunks and blocks on social media even if they aren’t watching all the games. You don’t have to watch a full game all the time to appreciate the players / your team
I don’t think a lot of illegal streaming is occurring at all. What exactly are you missing in regular season games??? You can go on social media and see highlights to pretty much everything.
IMO, people who stream actual live NBA games (meaning in lieu of cable/broadcast) to a large enough screen to watch all or most of it SHOULD count as TV viewers same as watching on cable/broadcast TV. I believe that there are (tech neutral) viewership ratings that include the combined game watchers.
I don’t equate watching highlights, and podcasts, with watching games. Because it’s only those who watch games that grow the sport. I pass no judgement on the highlight watchers and their appreciation of the players/teams. But they don’t grow anything.
FWIW, I’ll watch highlights from sports and other events that I’ve never participated in (and won’t ever participate in). But I’ll never be a grower of those things. They have my attention until they don’t.
If you are doing well on social media it just Means you are total trash, just like social media. So what if twitter bots engage nba on socials.
They should believe in their organization? … Hahaha hahaha hahaha …
Believe…they are gunna move to Las Vegas?
From Jazz GM Justin Zanik:
“Obviously it kind of reshaped the Western Conference,” Zanik continued. “When we are up there [in the standings] with those guys here very soon, then maybe I’d care a little bit more about being the third team [to help the deal get done]. … If we were in the playoff [hunt] right now, I’d be asking both of them [Harrison and Pelinka] like, ‘what is going on here, and I’m not doing it.'”
Zanik should be fired today.
“Last year was so magical, that competition, that it started to feel forced. And I think there was concern from all of us that we just weren’t feeling it.”
Translation: Curry’s 3-point percentage has dropped considerably over the past two seasons and how embarrassing would that be losing to a “girl”?
What a liar! He knew about the trade because he forced it. Ratings are down, merchandise sales are down and the NBA wants to move the team to Las Vegas. Silver is a loser.
The NBA has become an elitist and discriminatory league against small market teams. The losing teams are always the same, which is why credibility and viewership have decreased. It is no longer the best basketball league, now it is the best market league.
I miss the David Stern years. He would’ve put to rest any of this nonsense about the team moving from Dallas. He would’ve said that ownership can want or plan for whatever they please, but the Mavs are staying put in Dallas end of story.
good for the wnba players not coming to all star weekend. they’re not getting paid for it. let the nba players go to their all star weekend.
Those who believe the league had nothing to do with the trade likely also believe Ohtani doesn’t gamble.
Honestly Wolves GM and Finch should be fired. Extending Gobert? No one wanted him. Trading Towns for the worst PF in the league who plays worse Def than KAT, plus a guy who had one good season. And a coach who plays wrong line-ups and just sticks Jaden on their best player regardless of size. Pass.