NBA FINALS: CELTICS VS. WARRIORS

June 2, 2022

Adam Silver

Media Conference

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: All right, I just want to recognize that Maureen Coyle is standing in for Tim Frank, you all know well, whose son is graduating from high school and can't be here. He's on his way to Tim's alma mater, Notre Dame, Byron Spruell's alma mater as well. Ryan, congratulations. And, Tim, get back to work.

And for all of you, thanks so much for being here.

For us, it's only fitting that on our 75th Anniversary, two of the original NBA franchises are represented here. Of course the Warriors, who won the first-ever NBA championship in 1947, were then Philadelphia Warriors, and then up against the Boston Celtics, who will be competing for the highest number of championships in the league. They are tied with the Lakers right now at 17 each and will be going for 18. So we're thrilled about that.

Also how fitting that some of the greatest players ever are associated with these franchises. Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Bob Cousy. Obviously just goes to the age of this league that Bill Russell, as I've said before, is someone, along with Bob Cousy, who I can pick up the phone and talk to about the state of the league. While we are 75 years old, it's not all that old.

I think as I'm looking out on these fantastic Finals coming up, you have some extraordinary, legendary talent out there. Steph, having achieved so much on the floor; up-and-coming superstar Jayson Tatum; you have players who have demonstrated all-time resilience. I just saw Klay Thompson's dad out in the hall. We were talking about the fact here he is back in the Finals, having lost essentially two full seasons. Quite an incredible story.

And the competition has been nothing short of spectacular through these playoffs. Just look at these Celtics coming off another fantastic Game 7 against the Miami Heat.

One of the things I want to make sure I touch on today, of course, although we are here to play basketball, seemingly we can't escape from a very polarized society and those issues, whether it be guns most recently, LGBTQ issues, you name it, societal issues that are just part of this league and have been part of the DNA of this league for a long time.

I am very proud of our players and coaches who choose to use this platform to speak out about those issues. We now in the last essentially year and a half have formed both an NBA Foundation and a Social Justice Coalition to help us move the ball forward in a collective manner on those issues as well.

I didn't want to not mention Brittney Griner while I'm here. It's been now over a hundred days since she's been illegally held in Russia. I think it's something that all of us should be heard on, contacting your representatives and others. I will only say we are working in lockstep with the U.S. government and outside experts on trying to expedite her release in any way we can. Certainly our hearts go out to her and her family, and just are eager for her safe return. And so I join my colleagues in the WNBA in making reference to her as well.

Lastly, since we were all last here, we lost a really close friend and colleague, Bob Lanier. Since I joined the league 30 years ago, he seemingly was a constant presence in the league many of those years. He was at the league office first as David Stern's special assistant, then when I worked directly with him at that point, and then after David stepped down he continued in a similar capacity working with me and my colleagues at the league office.

He earlier in his career had been a president of the National Basketball Players Association. He in essence became our global ambassador. He traveled the world for the league. He was always a presence here at the Finals for the community events we do in both cities. And I want to say again, he is dearly missed by all of us, and it's just a bit of sadness to be at my first Finals without him.

Q. We agree with you, Tim Frank should get back to work, first of all. I remember in 2018 there was this notion of fan fatigue after four straight Cavs-Warriors matchups. We've seen five different franchises win the East in the last five years, six different teams make the Finals in the last three years. You've often said you don't care who wins, but I guess from a business standpoint, how important is it that it's not the same teams every year, and is that in any way beneficial to the league that there has been a bit of unpredictability?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: Sure, you use the great statistics that I could have used myself, so thanks for saying that. We've seen increased parity, increased competition around the league over the last several years. As you've said, six different teams in the Finals over the last three years.

When I say I don't care who wins, I mean, of course, I do care, though, about the platform that we are presenting and the competition itself. Anybody running a league wants to see not necessarily in my mind parity on the floor every year but parity of opportunity. You also want a system where the best players, the best-managed teams can also excel.

So I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing unto itself if you have repeat teams in the Finals or champions, frankly, like the Golden State Warriors, who are back here in the Finals for the sixth time in eight years.

We do, though, focus a lot on ensuring through a salary-cap system that teams, in essence, have the same fair opportunity to compete. And that is something we're always looking at as part of our system, something we are constantly talking to the Players Association about. And to me, that should be not just a concern shared by fans of all 30 teams but for all players in the league, all 450 players, presumably want an equal chance to win championships and be part of championship teams.

I'm pleased where we are. I'm thrilled with the teams that are here in the Finals. But it's something, at least in my time in the league, I think we have incrementally improved the system every time along the way so that we can have more and more top-tier teams and competition throughout the league.

Q. Injuries have always been a part of the NBA and load management over the last few years. You talked about this before about looking at the potential reduction of games in the regular season. Where do things stand right now? Is that something that you see that can be beneficial, or this is still up in the air?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: To your point, it's something we have been talking a lot about the last few years. And I'm not against potentially changing the format of the season, possibly even shortening it a bit, if we can demonstrate that that's going to have a direct impact on injuries.

For example, last season, we played ten fewer games, and essentially had no impact. And people seemingly quickly forgot. I mean, again, it was a function of COVID and our need to start the season later and end later. But we played a 72-game season instead of an 82-game season last year. And, yes, it's true, if players aren't on the floor, it reduces the chance they can get injured.

As I have said before, what we don't see is increased numbers of injuries as the season goes on. It's not as if because of fatigue over the course of a season, you see more injuries. We do see a connection between actual fatigue, for example, from back-to-backs or three in a row. We think that potentially can lead to more injuries.

I think the way we are trying to look at it now is instead of reducing the number of games, we are thinking from a competitive standpoint, is there a way to improve what, to many people, is a long regular season.

And one of the ways we're thinking of doing that is an in-season tournament. Something we talk a lot about. We are not there yet. We continue to talk to our Competition Committee about it, our team governors, the Players Association, to see if there's a way throughout the season to create more meaningful games, more games of consequence, potentially a tournament that would arguably replace some of the regular-season games but would be more meaningful.

I think generally we would be operating in the same footprint for a season, beginning roughly the same point in October, ending around mid-June, but enhancing the competition in certain ways.

And you -- real quickly you mentioned load management. That is something we are concerned about at the league, meaning that we want to make sure that we have a system where our best players are incentivized to be on the floor. At the same time, we obviously don't want to see them injured.

What we are hoping is that we can all work collectively, 30 teams together, in a non-competitive way, together with our Players Association, and figure out what is optimal on these players' bodies so that they are incentivized to play but are not overdoing it to the extent where they end up playing too much and pushing through injuries that ends up hurting their careers.

Q. So for the second consecutive season, a player who finished second in the MVP voting did not make First Team All-NBA, but the player who finished third made First Team All-NBA. How much consideration is being given to altering that, where it's three front court, two back court, or no positions at all, and to the larger context, that it also has an impact on player salary and contracts?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: So a few things packed into that question.

In terms of determinations for All-NBA, I think a fair amount of consideration is going into whether we should just -- really, you, the way it works now, the media -- should just be picking top players than be picking by position. I think we are a league that has moved increasingly toward positionless basketball, and the current system may result in some inequities based on the happenstance of what your position is.

So that is something we're looking at. It's something that we will discuss with the Players Association because it has impact on incentives and players contracts, and it has, you know, deep meaning for their legacy as well. So we will look at those things.

In terms of the ultimate selection process and to your point that in some cases can have a direct financial impact on a player's contract, right now we agreed with the Players Association to use those designations to trigger certain bonuses in players' contracts, frankly because we couldn't come up with a better way that would feel objective to everyone involved.

I think we all recognize that doing it on a pure stats basis or just using analytics, there would be unfairness there because it doesn't pick up the intangibles. Certainly I don't think anyone wanted the league office to do it. And we came up with this proxy for the media to do it.

I understand from a player's standpoint, saying, Can't believe the media has been given this power over me. I will say, when you have a hundred media members essentially on the panel, it seems to work its way out. We are going to discuss that with the players and sit down once again and see if there's a better way to do it.

Q. I wanted to follow up on the news today that there's been a bid made for the Portland Trail Blazers and the Blazers saying that they are not for sale. Do you expect that team to be sold eventually, and is that a stipulation in Paul Allen's trust?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: I don't know all the specifics of Paul Allen's trust. What I understand is that Jody Allen, who is Paul Allen's sister, is the trustee of the estate and that at some point, the team will be sold.

I don't have any sense of the precise timing. I read that same statement today in which she or someone on behalf of the estate said the team is not currently for sale. But at some point it will be for sale. This is a hugely a complex estate, and although it's been several years, these things take time.

Having said that, everyone has interest in a smooth transition. I think Jody has been an excellent steward of the team in the meantime. I'll say Portland has been a wonderful community for the NBA. The team has been there over 50 years now, and our preference, my preference, would be that that team remain in Portland as part of this process.

It will work its way out, but I know Jody and her advisors are very focused on it. As to the timing, that is something her brother left in her hands.

Q. As you look ahead to next season, do you anticipate that a positive COVID test will be a disqualifying event for league personnel?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: That's a really interesting question because of course now, and I don't know if it's analogous or not, there are other viruses, where the flu, for example, historically, it's been a determination from a player and team or player's doctor as to whether it's appropriate for them to be out on the floor.

Ultimately, I think that's a bigger issue than the NBA. I don't think there we're looking to be a trendsetter. I think we want to be mindful of an impact an infected player can have not just on other players on the floor but people in the arena. We have an issue right now with broadcasters who are out with COVID. So it's a pretty close community.

That's an area where we have a fantastic panel of doctors who have been working with us since March of 2020 when they shut down. And I think we will both look to them to make a recommendation, but then we will look to see what's happening in greater society as well.

Q. In December we have the next round of potential opt-outs on both sides in the CBA. Six years ago when you were in that position, you were able to reset the CBA. Do you anticipate that will be the case this time, and you will come to an agreement this winter and be able to get things wrapped up before the opt-out date?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: I think it's a bit early to say. We at the league are just getting to know my new counterpart, Tamika Tremaglio, who is the incoming executive director of the Players Association. She is someone we had known prior to her taking on that role. She had been an advisor to the Players Association. She had been a former colleague at Deloitte of Cathy Engelbert's, the commissioner of the WNBA, Byron Spruell, president of Basketball Operations, some of you know, and I'm in the process of building a relationship with her.

What was effective last time around was using that opt-out as a self-imposed deadline by both sides. I think we all know that for any negotiation, seemingly collective bargaining in particular, deadlines are really helpful to get people to push their best offers across the table. So I'm hoping, we're always discussing things, the league and the Players Association.

And just lastly, I'll say that this whole process of dealing with COVID protocols, shutting down, reopening the bubble, etc., has brought us all much closer. We never used to talk as much as we do now. I'm not always crazy about virtual calls and Zoom, but because of that technology, it's allowed us to have at least daily calls for the last two and a half years. I think if you have strong relationships, it's very conducive to getting a deal done. I am optimistic that we can move quickly.

Q. Is it safe that you'll use a similar blueprint, getting it done by that December deadline, a similar process if it works out that way?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: Yes.

Q. There's some talk I hear that the NBA may be expanding to Seattle and Las Vegas after the 2024 season. Your thoughts on expansion? You mentioned top-tier talent. Of course you would have more players being able to play in the NBA. Would that affect the level of talent because of expansion?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: Just to answer the first part of your question directly, that talk is not true. At least maybe there are people talking who are not at the league office about us potentially expanding after the 2024 season. We are not discussing that at this time.

As I said before, at some point, this league invariably will expand, but it's not at this moment that we are discussing it. But one of the factors in expanding is the potential dilution of talent.

As I've said before, I find it remarkable that when you have the second-most-played sport in the world after soccer, tens of millions -- now just talking on the NBA side -- of young men playing in this game, and then you have the 450 best in the world in this league, that there's a few of them who separate themselves even among those 450 as the very best of the best, but there is then a fall-off, a drop-off in talent after that.

So expansion does create a certain amount of dilution. And even sort of adding another 30 players or so that are roughly comparable, there still are only so many of the truly top-tier super talents to go around. That is something on the mind of the other teams as we think about expansion.

But those are wonderful markets. Again, as I've said before, we were in Seattle. I'm sorry we are no longer there. We have a WNBA team in Seattle in an almost brand-new building that's doing spectacular. And Las Vegas, where we will be at our Summer League in July, has shown itself to be a great sports market as well.

We'll be looking at it at some point, but there's no specific timeline right now.

Q. You have a coast-to-coast Finals on your hands here, and the possibility of extra flights cross-country by your teams, I know there are travel days built in, but are you a little bit nostalgic for the old 2-3-2?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: Not one bit. That's one of the first things I changed when I became commissioner, was moving back to this 2-2-1-1-1 model. It just feels, as long as the flight is -- and I flew from New York today; yes, it's a long trip going from coast to coast -- but we just feel it's better from a competitive standpoint.

It always felt to me in all my years in the league before we switched back to this format that, first of all, the players are used to, on their bodies, the 2-2-1-1-1 format from the earlier rounds. And it just always felt that it was -- even unsure where the unfairness lay, but the three in that second city just felt long and arduous.

We have beautiful planes in this league. It's a long flight. Again, it's tough on everybody's bodies. It's tough on the media having to go back and forth across the country, but it feels like it's the right format.

Q. You referenced the WNBA, and there's been talk about expansion in that league, and here there's been several groups interested in bringing a team to the Bay Area. What are your thoughts on that possibility and specifically this market?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: No. 1, this is a fantastic basketball market and has historically been a great woman's basketball market. Those may recall there was another league that formed, the ABL, at the same time that the WNBA launched, and they had a successful team here in San Francisco.

The governor of the Warriors, Joe Lacob, has talked also about bringing a WNBA team here, and they are obviously great operators.

I'm definitely in favor of it, but I will defer to my colleague, Cathy Engelbert, commissioner of the WNBA. She's talked about the desire to expand; at the same time she's focused on having a strong economic model with the current 12 teams.

I think similar to what I'm saying on the NBA side, although she's got a lot more expansion down the road than probably we do, but I think she's doing a fantastic job running that league. And I think once she feels that sort of all the proper building blocks are in place with the existing 12 teams, no doubt she'll turn to expansion, and I'm sure San Francisco will be on her list.

Q. What's the current status with China, both broadcast, politics, ping-pong diplomacy? Are you in regular conversations with the regime and broadcast partners?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: If I heard your question correctly, we are not in regular contact with the regime, if that's what you said. We do talk to our broadcast partners there. As everyone knows we went off CCTV, Chinese Central Television, in October 2019, and then we remained on Tencent, their streaming service in China throughout. Then CCTV decided to put us back on the air a few weeks ago, which was the continuation of a essentially 35-year relationship with CCTV.

My position is, said this many times, that I think engagement is positive, particularly through sports. I think to keep people safe and prosperous that using sports as a platform to keep people around the world talking is critically important. At the same time, I don't think it's inconsistent with our values for our game to be broadcast in China and 200-plus other countries in the world. So that's where things stand.

We are not immune from the geopolitical forces that I read and hear about on a daily basis. I will add, though, that I find that in my discussions with leaders in the U.S., there still seems to be a distinction between the politics around doing business in China and the policy around doing business in China.

From a policy standpoint, virtually every Fortune 100 company is doing business in China. We have enormous, humongous trade relationship with China. As I said virtually, all the phones in this room, the clothes you are wearing, the shoes you are wearing, are made in China. From a larger societal standpoint, this is something where we have to look to the U.S. government for direction. And if people are suggesting now that we should no longer have trade relations with China, and I don't think they are, that's a huge global issue that we -- one which we will follow the lead from our government.

But very specifically, I think it's a positive thing right now that we are exporting this Americana, NBA basketball, and the messages that come with it to China.

Q. Between 2019 and the present day, do you have a sense, ballpark of the aggregate losses for teams in the league?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: As I said before, it's been in the hundreds of millions of dollars. We accept that and I said that at the time when we said we stand behind our players and team executives, their right to free expression, whether about issues in the United States or issues any place in the world, if those are the consequences, that's what I mean that our values travel with us. Others as you know since then have spoken out about their views around China and other places in the world and if the consequences are that we're taken off the air or we lose money, we accept that.

Q. All-Star break a year ago, there was a concern about the Black head coaches, and now with the addition of Darvin Ham, there's 15 with an opening still available. What do you think has changed during that time? I know I've talked to Mark Tatum about it, but what kind of things have you guys done in the last couple years that you perhaps made teams more aware of qualified African American candidates in a league that's predominately Black?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: One of the things we've done, I've talked about this before, and this isn't unique to the NBA and I've learned this from other businesses, is that you have to talk about these issues all the time.

I mean, if you care about diversity and inclusion in your workplace, you've got to look at the data. You've got to constantly present it to your colleagues, to your department heads, to your teams, and it has to become a focus. It's my job in part to say that's a priority for this organization.

At the same time, having said that, while I'm particularly proud of those numbers and roughly 50 percent of our head coaches are Black now, the goal is that that's not newsworthy, and that when people are hired, their first reaction isn't the color of their skin. I don't want to be naïve, either, though, because I know that what we do in this league is important symbolically, not just for sports but for other industries, and people watch us all around the world.

I'm also putting aside the color of the skin of those coaches. What we're also seeing and this is something we very much focused on is the emergence of a whole new class of former players who have moved into head coaching positions.

Incidentally, you know, thank you, Gregg Popovich. He practically runs an academy there for future coaches, and not just coaches but team executives. He's done a fantastic job.

And what we see at the league office is that if we focus on the issues -- I remember Rick Carlisle came to us as head of the Coaches Association in the league a few years ago, to Kathy Behrens, who is here with me, Oris Stuart, chief people officer at the league, and said we all collectively need to do a better job. One of the ways we decided is again, technology helps, having a better database, so that head coaches who are looking for assistants or team governors who are looking for coaches have a database, which they could quickly see who is available, who is interested in coaching, how much experience they have. These changes come only incrementally. It doesn't help just to bang the pulpit and say, go do this. You have to work with people and you have to understand what the obstacles are.

The follow-up to your question, which might come, what about the rest of the positions in the league? I'm proud of the job we have done in the league office. We are making a lot of progress in terms of general managers, team presidents, both on basketball side and the business side, but more work to be done.

Q. The Boston Celtics are preparing an application for an All-Star Game. They have not hosted since 1964. Would you encourage such application, and are NBA cities starting to line up applications? Or are you having trouble getting cities to want to host All-Star Games?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: I encourage that application from Boston. It's a wonderful city. Obviously, we'll be there soon.

There was a period, maybe it seems 10-plus years ago, where it became disfavored to have All-Star Games for whatever reason, and now they are back. I've got a long list of NBA cities that would like to have All-Star -- it's not even a game anymore. It's not even a weekend. It's a week of activities. We're thrilled to be in Utah. It's not just Salt Lake City next year but it's Utah; it's the Salt Lake City environs. They push it out to the skiing and hiking in the mountains and everything else.

For us, we only have that as our neutral site event, meaning where the league can host guests from around the world and has lots of tickets. Here we are scrounging for tickets here, like everybody else in San Francisco and will be in Boston. It's a great opportunity for us, and also just we love it as a week to shine the world's attention on basketball.

Q. You mentioned all of the great work that's been done in terms of diversifying the coaching ranks. But no woman has yet shattered that glass ceiling, and you have coaches like Becky Hammon and Natalie Nakase that recently went to the WNBA because they were not finding that opportunity here. Is there any work being done on the grass roots level to try to shatter that ceiling?

COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: There is and I'm glad you raise it. I would say about Becky Hammon, she had a fantastic position at the San Antonio Spurs and got a great head coaching job in the WNBA and she herself said, I think the last thing we want is to be viewed as a step back, that she is a head coach in the WNBA with a terrific opportunity.

But I've said it before and I should have said earlier, there is no reason that women shouldn't be head coaches and more of them shouldn't be assistant coaches in the NBA. There's no reason why there shouldn't be more women officials. We have made progress in both those areas around the league now. There are a lot more female assistants at our teams, but we do have to break through that glass ceiling.

I think in the same way that we have made progress in terms of black coaches, it requires constant dialogue, requires making sure there is a pipeline of women who are coming up, who are known to our teams that we sort of break down the old boys' network to the extent one exists where maybe it's not intentional bias but people hire their friends, people hire the people they have worked with before, people hire the people they know. So we've just got to stick with it.

But I would love to see that breakthrough happen sooner rather than later.