NBA IN-SEASON TOURNAMENT

December 9, 2023

Adam Silver

ADAM SILVER: Welcome to Vegas, everybody. We are thrilled to be here. This will be the 67th game of the In-Season Tournament. Of course, the final game, and ultimately, the awarding of the first-ever NBA Cup. I want to congratulate the Los Angeles Lakers and, of course, the Indiana Pacers on making it here to this final game.

It's interesting, with the Buss family and the Simon families, we have the two longest-tenured ownership groups in the NBA. The Busses have owned this team, the Lakers, for 44 years and the Simons for 40 years. So quite remarkable that it ended up that way.

I want to thank all of the players in the league and the coaches, of course, the teams, for embracing this new concept. I know it doesn't come without challenges. There's no doubt there's some things that we are learning this time through. I mean, overall, we are thrilled with the interest we've seen so far this season. But again, probably people are tired of hearing the word "tweak." So we'll come up with another synonym for that.

Once we complete tonight's game, we'll be meeting with all our teams, and I see the Players Association here. We will talk with them as well and get any thoughts they have on it.

Lastly, I'll say about the reception we've had here in Las Vegas, I think part of the attraction for the players was the notion that this final four would be here. For good reason. It's a great market to be in. We've gotten an enthusiastic reception from the mayor's office, from the chamber of commerce here, from everyone involved. I just want to thank the people here in Las Vegas for embracing the concept.

So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions you have.

Q. The 25-game mark for Ja Morant is approaching in the next week or so. You intimated when you imposed the suspension that there would be checkpoints that he would have to cross. Have you seen any checkpoints? Are you satisfied? Is there any new information that you've received or how closely are you monitoring it?

ADAM SILVER: Yes, I have been monitoring the situation closely, and him. In fact, we intend to have a check-in this week directly, Ja and I. But folks in the league office, together with Ja and his team and the Players Association, have been in regular contact, essentially weekly. There have been those checkpoints.

We've, together, laid out a program for him over the last several weeks, and to the best of my knowledge, he's complied with everything he's been asked to do. As I said, we'll talk at least once this week before he comes back, and we will review the program and make sure the conditions are in place for him to be successful going forward.

Q. At the start of the season, Joe Dumars met with a few of us and made a suggestion that there was league data that suggested that load management doesn't work. What is that data? What does it say, and is it something that we would be able to view?

ADAM SILVER: The answer on data, sure. You know we're a transparent league. Happy to share with the media, with the public, whatever injury data we have.

I think really what Joe was saying is that there's no data that it does work. There's art and science here. Let's be careful of what we are talking about, as well. I think what Joe is saying is that we have no data that it prevents any injuries. I don't think there's any question that a player that is playing three games out of four nights, for example, when a player is tired, that it impacts performance.

So just to be clear, I think the data Joe is referring to is we have this sort of mixed science and medical data. The question is I think the ultimate question behind load management isn't so much that there isn't a fall-off from performance when you are tired and fatigued. The question is, does that lead to more injuries?

Especially the way load management is now used, it's not even so much of a specific focus that this player is tired and may be more likely to be injured in the moment. It was used in a way programmatically where on November 5th teams are circling games on December 12th and saying, based on our program, the player should not be participating in that game. I think what Joe was saying, and I think it's our belief, that we have no solid data that that is effective.

And so performance, yes, but I think that's an issue we have to balance out in terms of the business side of it, and the expectation from our fans that players and media that the players will play when they are otherwise healthy.

Data, we will share. But that's something we are continuing to look at.

Q. The new trophy being presented tonight got me wondering, what discussions have you and the Board of Governors had through the years about honoring David Stern with some sort of, one of the pieces of hardware or some other way? It's been awhile since he's been commissioner.

ADAM SILVER: Absolutely, and frankly, long overdue to find additional ways to honor him.

We had some ideas going into the pandemic. They got waylaid, really, because of the bubble and everything that was happening there, and we've turned back to it.

Just be honest, there had been some thoughts even around the In-Season Tournament. We are calling it a cup, not a trophy, but there's also an MVP trophy, as to whether that should be something named after David. There are some who felt that it wasn't big enough. Maybe after the reception here -- we've been struggling a little bit because there's plenty of things we can do to honor him, but I think everyone in the NBA community wants to make sure that they are sufficient to take into account the enormous amount he contributed to the game.

We are putting together a group here, I have assembled, to help the league office come up with the proper way to do that. So stay tuned.

Q. The Diamond Sports bankruptcy has recently reported that the league will have the right to accrue those local rights after this season for those 15 teams. How does that affect your plans for the new TV deal and what do you think is going to happen with those rights?

ADAM SILVER: It hasn't been finalized yet. There's still a procedure in bankruptcy court. It's dependent a bit on what baseball decides to do, but there is a scenario in which Diamond would essentially finish out this season and then those rights would revert back to the teams.

My view is that for our national negotiations, we think those rights are incredibly valuable, those local rights, and there may be an opportunity to integrate those rights into a new national or, for that matter, international package. So we are looking at those different scenarios. But as I said, we have to wait first for the bankruptcy court to finish.

Ultimately, you step back and look at this from a fan-first standpoint, I think there's a lot we can do to make these games more accessible to fans. That's the main goal here.

Q. What have your impressions been on Tyrese Haliburton and what he's brought to this event? And how good has it been for the event to have the most established player in the league succeeding and an underexposed young player doing what he's done?

ADAM SILVER: Great point. I think you all know him well in Indiana. I think fans on a national level forget that he was an All-Star last year. So he has been recognized already as a top player.

But it's a great storyline. I mean, to your point, to see one of the most storied players in NBA history here in the tournament together with a young team, led by Tyrese. The enthusiasm that Tyrese and his teammates have brought to this competition, I think in a positive way, with a bit of a chip on their shoulder. I think not the same kind of national exposure that many other teams get, not that many national dates sort of on our calendar.

But they have seen it in a positive way. I spent some time yesterday with that team. We did a community event here at the Boys & Girls Club with a group of their players, and they were embracing it. They see it as an opportunity, and I'm thrilled to hear that.

Q. As a league, you've said you are looking into the allegations against Josh Giddey. What does that entail, and is there an anticipated timetable for the conclusion of that investigation?

ADAM SILVER: The issue, as I said yesterday, is that when there's a parallel criminal investigation, we do take a back seat to the criminal investigation. Part of it is, just even for a defense lawyer who is representing a player, understandably protecting that player's rights, and protecting that player in a criminal context, that's their job to do that, that they don't want to waive certain rights by having the player in the first instance talk to the league.

So generally, we will work with law enforcement to the extent they will share with us the information they have. We can learn from that. We gather whatever information is available to us, in working alongside a police department in this case, or a D.A. As long as they say that we are not interfering with their investigation, we do what we can at the same time.

But generally, we fall in behind any investigation and then go from there.

Q. You mentioned before the situation, you guys are in the middle of negotiations right now about the national TV deal overall. Curious where the negotiations stand? Do you have a timeline when they will wrap up? What do you think the likelihood is that there will be more than the two current partners in the new deal?

ADAM SILVER: I don't know if noticed, but the CEO of Disney was here on Thursday for the game. So I had a chance to catch up with him. We have great relationships with our current partners, with Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, which oversees what was Turner Broadcasting. I was really encouraged to see the two networks working with each other around the semifinal games. We have an exclusive negotiating period that technically, essentially, March, April, but we of course are talking to them now.

It's my hope that they will be part of the future of this league. Both of those organizations have been for a long time. I think the fact that they have been such strong partners, that they work well together, has enabled us to grow as much as we have over the last couple of decades. But we are also looking at global coverage as well.

At the same time, I should just say that both those companies are in the process of morphing from more traditional broadcasters to streaming entities, too. So, positive conversations with them. But I know there's interest from other media companies as well.

Q. As a quick follow-up on a different topic, you said earlier you don't want to use the word "tweak" any more, with this but obviously this is a tournament you've been personally invested in for a long time. What are some things that you've gone through the first time that you would potentially like to see done differently next year and on?

ADAM SILVER: I'm not there yet that they should be done differently, only that there are serious issues that we should all discuss. I'll tick off a few of them.

I'm a big advocate of the colorful courts. Obviously, we want it make sure the players have confidence in them and the type of paint used isn't more slippery. I think we dealt with those issues, incidentally, but want to make sure they are not a distraction.

I think in the process we went through the first time, they are a bit cookie cutter. I love the court we are using here for the semifinals and final game, but I think there could be some more creativity and set some parameters for the teams. Maybe that's not as an important issue as some of the others.

The point differential issue to break ties, again, that was a concept that is well known in international basketball and FIBA and Olympic competition. I'm not ready necessarily to move away from it, but if ultimately there's going to be a sense, particularly from our American fans, that somehow it is an indication of poor sportsmanship, that's not a good idea for us to be doing it. Maybe there's some ways to tweak that where it only matters up to a certain point in terms of point differential. There's some ways to experiment there.

I think the scheduling. This doesn't get as much attention, but it's something my teams are very focused on. That for the teams that did not advance to the knockout stage, then have to essentially schedule games at the last minute. I want to make sure we are being fair to them, their season-ticket holders. In some cases, the ability to sell tickets on short turnaround. So we are looking at that data to see how much it affected their gate attendance. Those are a few of the issues.

I've gotten some comments from our teams all along the way. I think what we have said all along is let's get through today, everybody take a little bit of a breather and then come back and then get comments from everyone. It's the Players Association, it's teams, media. And frankly, all suggestions welcome.

You know, I say that to the world, that they come in over the transom, don't mind those either. Some of the best ideas have not been ours. We are fortunate that we have committed media and fans who are happy to share their thoughts with us. My sense is there's no question there will be some changes for next year.

Q. Are you pleasantly surprised by the money carrot and how the players of varying salaries are responding to it and how the coaches can get a piece of it? And is there any thought of bringing it to the All-Star Game, Dunk Contest, 3-Point, to add some extra motivation to those things as well?

ADAM SILVER: I am a bit surprised, only because there were a lot of cynics out there. Put aside the whole concept of the tournament, but a lot of people thought that the money would not make a difference to the players. I would only say, it was nice to see that dynamic on a team where you have, obviously, a significant differential in some cases in terms of what some of the stars are making and some of the other players, and it was nice to hear the stars saying, still a lot of money for anyone, but it's a lot more money proportionately for some of my teammates, and the notion that I'm doing it for them is a nice concept in a team sport. And even for those wealthier players, it's still a lot of money.

So I'm pleasantly surprised that guys are not dismissing it and saying, this isn't something real. And look, this is a business. I don't think there's anything wrong with money being a motivator in certain cases.

I will say, we've learned over the years in terms of the All-Star Game, as we've experimented with different formats and different incentives, money alone has not made the difference there, which I think is why some of the cynics were saying it wouldn't here.

I will say in terms of the interest we are seeing around the In-Season Tournament, I don't think it was just the money. I think it was the competition, in part. I think it was coming to Vegas. I think it was all of those things that made the difference.

I should say, also, players like LeBron, Steph, other leading veterans in this league embracing this from day one, that makes a big difference with the players, too.

On the Slam Dunk, you're familiar with this -- it has not just come from the league, but even in terms of partners of the league who have offered players, I think by any objective terms, a lot of money to participate in some of those contests. I think the players didn't think it was worth it for them, not because they didn't care about the money but because they were concerned about embarrassing themselves or disappointing people.

I would say players, at the end of the day, they are not that different than other people we know, that money is a motivator but not a sole motivator of their behavior.

Q. What's the league's role in monitoring player's health status day to day and game to game, especially since the league and many teams have partnerships with gambling companies, maintaining that status, so there's not a boy-cried-wolf scenario where a player continues to be listed the same status with an old injury, and perhaps may not reflect their current status?

ADAM SILVER: We monitor those reports very closely, both to ensure that accurate information is presented publicly but also because of our Player Participation Policy, to ensure that players are indeed injured to the point where they can't participate in the games.

I think it's a new issue in terms of disclosure that we are all dealing with. I think you can analogize to, I have before, you know, a public company issuing material information. Clearly we know there's a lot of betting now. Here we are in Las Vegas. Sports betting is legal I think in roughly 36 states and many of the markets around the world that follow the league.

So we want our fans, anyone who is engaging in sports betting, to believe it's a level playing field, and that to the extent there's information to be disclosed, they have access to that information and that there are not individuals around an organization who may unfairly have access to information and may not use it in an inappropriate way.

From that standpoint, we are learning all the time. I think we work closely with the other leagues on this issue and also with local governments now, I should say, state governments. I said from the very beginning, it would be my preference, and maybe we will get to this point, where there is federal legislation where there's a consistent framework for 50 states. But right now, 36 states, a bit of a hodgepodge of regulations.

But I've said from the beginning we think overall we benefit from a regulated environment here as opposed to what it was in the old days.

Q. I'm curious what the conversations have been like around the Chris Paul-Scott Foster situation. I know you said that you'd hope they'd be professional but those relations have not improved. There's the infamous losing streak as well --

ADAM SILVER: The infamous what? I'm sorry.

Q. The losing streak, when Scott officiates. Chris mentioned there was a meeting a couple years ago when he was with the Clippers. What did that meeting entail and how are you guys trying to improve those relations?

ADAM SILVER: You know, I don't want to go back over the history there. I would only say that Scott Foster is one of the best, the most highly rated referees in this league, and obviously Chris's record stands for itself. They are two people that I have enormous respect for, and they need to be professional about this.

Chris and I have now talked directly and there are issues we have to work through. But again, it's my expectation that everyone is going to be professional about it. As I've said, over time, history develops and you can sense sometimes there's bad blood, whether it's between players, maybe between an official, but that has to be parked when they play in a game. We will work through this.

Q. The players' union executive director role an important partner for you. How surprised were you when Tamika Tremaglio was replaced and what's your understanding of what happened there? And then spinning it forward, thoughts on Andre being your partner?

ADAM SILVER: I was surprised when Tamika was replaced only because I had no prior knowledge that there was any issue there. I mean, she and I had a very professional relationship in the role. But ultimately, I recognized that changes we could make at the league office, the Players Association could be saying, I had no idea any changes were coming in terms of executive positions here. It's my job to work with whoever is presented to me.

As far as I can tell from the outside, it's been a very smooth transition there to Andre Iguodala as I guess the interim executive director. Nothing has changed in terms of our day-to-day relations with them, and I have no other knowledge about why either the Players Association or Tamika decided to change the relationship.

But I would say, again, from our standpoint, Ron Klempner, longtime executive of the Players Association, is in the room here, we have not missed a beat in terms of our relationship. What we heard directly from other senior executives at the Players Association and the executive committee is this is business as usual with the league, and it has been.

Q. Along the lines of adjustments and feedback for this tournament, the scheduling of the games this week here, and going up against Monday Night Football on Monday in the home markets, the Thursday Night Football, the two o'clock start time, can you shed some light on what was the driving goal of scheduling out? Was it the championship game tonight at this time? What was the calculus about slating out this week of knockout-round games?

ADAM SILVER: Essentially we worked backwards from tonight and thought this was a good window in working with ABC to play the championship game.

Then if you work backwards and ensure that there was going to be a rest day before the semifinals and tonight's game, and then working backwards from there in terms of the knockout ound, we landed on Monday and Thursday. No question, not ideal for lots of reasons.

I will say, the Thursday 2:00 game here, 5:00 Eastern, did afford us the opportunity for fans in Europe, in particular -- Giannis made this point after the game -- to be able to access these games when otherwise it would have been the middle of the night; so we are a global sport. I could have added that to the list before of things we look at.

It's obviously not ideal to be going up against Monday Night Football or even the Thursday night game on Amazon. We do look at the competitive landscape, as I said, but part of the issue here is I think particularly the first time around, before people necessarily had confidence about what we were doing or we had a track record that it could be successful, that every day is significant when you're doing the scheduling. When you take games out of the schedule, it tightens everything up.

One of the issues we can discuss with the Players Association or teams, do you add a couple days to the season to help relieve some of the pressure here? There's a bunch of different things we can look at. But I think we knew the first time around that some of these windows would not be ideal from a television standpoint.

Q. What do you think about the beginning of the season of Victor Wembanyama and what about his economic impact on the league?

ADAM SILVER: Well, to go to my last answer, Victor Wembanyama has been a terrific addition to the league. He's a wonderful young man. I've had an opportunity to spend some time with him. I know that the Spurs are very encouraged by his play on the floor. Obviously, it's not represented in wins yet. But he's a young, developing player in this league.

And to the earlier question about the two o'clock start time, of course it wasn't the Spurs playing, but we know we have a huge following in France. We know we have a huge following throughout Europe. One of the issues over time that we need to work through is how can we make more games accessible in a reasonable time period to those fans.

Maybe it will mean, we had this two o'clock start here; it may mean over time taking some games during our regular season, even if they are being played in the home market and playing earlier occasionally with the recognition that there's a big audience out there, and people are interested in watching our players.

I'll just say lastly, we'll have a number of NBA players, not just the USA players, of course, playing in Paris this summer for the Olympics. I think we are going to see a real impact there in terms of the huge interest in Team France and the other NBA players, whether they are playing for USA or their home countries.

Q. You mentioned the courts being a fun twist on the formula for the In-Season Tournament. Are there any plans to bring back the Finals logo for the Finals on the courts?

ADAM SILVER: I'm not sure. We've played around a bit with that Finals logo over the years, and we're, in fact, right now taking a look at this whole family of logos in the league.

I think what the learning from these In-Season Tournament courts is, we kind of have a little bit more fun with the courts. Also, what I've heard from fans often is that particularly if they are not at home, if they are in a sports bar or somewhere, they see the colorful court, it signifies there's something different going on.

What surprised me a little bit, I was talking to some of the players yesterday on both teams, and they were saying they appreciated that the different color courts signify that the game was special. I would say when we were coming up with a concept, we thought of it more as from a media standpoint, not that guys would be like, oh, these games are special.

You've given me an idea. It may not be just the Finals logo. But for the Finals, we could have a special Finals court, again, not just with the trophy in the center, but a little bit more colorful.

I think these are areas where, as my colleague Joe Dumars always says, as long as you keep the game clean, then it gives me a little bit more license to do some fun things around the game. I think doing some things with the court and with the Finals court may be an example of that.