- 18 hours ago
Adam Silver joins The Carton Show for a must-watch interview covering everything happening around the NBA. Silver discusses the state of the league, potential expansion, how the NBA continues to evolve, and more!
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00:00The NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, is in the building, so we're going to get started with him a little bit
00:04earlier than we thought.
00:06All good, don't have the commissioner just sitting around our green room with the picture of Steve Summers on the
00:11wall, because then he might leave.
00:14In the more general newsroom?
00:16He might actually walk out.
00:20So, Gallo's going to grab Commissioner Silver, and we'll have him in here right now.
00:25Right now.
00:25Always happy to see the commissioner on the eve of the NBA playoffs.
00:29We'll have you come right around.
00:30Good to see you.
00:31Appreciate you coming in.
00:32Mike, how are you?
00:33We'll have you right here in the middle.
00:35That's Chris McMonigle.
00:37And the Knicks, of course, tomorrow night at 6 o'clock.
00:40You've got the two final playing games tonight for the eighth seed, Golden State, after that brilliant performance by Steph
00:46Curry.
00:47And although the metal ball did get in some trouble, a really great performance on the court when he was
00:51playing basketball.
00:52He had Charlotte to win away.
00:54Okay, Commissioner Adam Silver, good to see you.
00:56Thank you so much for coming in.
00:58Great to be here.
00:59As I was walking in, I heard you were promoting me for 25 minutes by now, so I hope I
01:02didn't screw anything up.
01:03I did a little bit early, but it's Friday afternoon, so I'm a little early.
01:05I can't believe you're sitting in there for a half hour.
01:08You actually have a very nice green room, so why?
01:10Appreciate that.
01:10And the beautiful building you're located in now.
01:12Yeah, we've been down here for, I guess we got here 2009, I want to say.
01:16I think we did the lobby since I've been here.
01:17Yeah.
01:18Yeah, because Google bought most of the building, so.
01:20Yes.
01:21We did a lot of the building.
01:22Stepping up here, yeah.
01:23Anyhow, how are you?
01:24Good to see you.
01:25I'm great, thank you.
01:25Yeah, well, so much to talk to you about as we get ready for the official playoffs.
01:30So tomorrow night, obviously, as Nick fans, excited to see the Atlanta Hawks come into town 6 o'clock tomorrow
01:34night on Amazon,
01:35as all these early games are.
01:38I saw some of the stats that ratings were up for this year, double digits.
01:42Attendance, of course, is always good.
01:44Give me kind of your state of the union on the NBA before we get into more of the specific
01:49questions for you.
01:50You know, I'd just say in terms of viewership, believe it or not, it's the highest viewership in 24 years.
01:55And as you remember going into the season, because as we were changing television partners no longer on TNT
02:00and then moved to Comcast, NBC, and Peacock, and then to Amazon Prime, which you just mentioned,
02:06a lot of people thought viewers would have trouble finding our games.
02:08I think, you know, we have a particularly young audience.
02:10And so the younger the audience is, the more that they default to streaming services anyway.
02:15You know, I recognize for some people and navigating as you're going from ESPN to ABC and getting the streaming
02:20is a little bit of an issue.
02:21But the fact is, as I said, our fans found us in record numbers, you know, highest viewership in 24
02:26years.
02:26And in terms of attendance, you're right, our attendance has always been strong.
02:29But interestingly enough, and I think this is true for a lot of live entertainment now,
02:33and it's not just, you know, we're obviously well past COVID, but people want to be around other people.
02:39We've now, the last three seasons have been our three highest attended years in the entire history of the NBA.
02:44And I mean, it's not just us.
02:46I look across the league, NHL, baseball, et cetera.
02:49I mean, it's clear, like, people want to be with other people.
02:52They want to gather for big events.
02:53Yeah, and they want their sports.
02:54And they love sports.
02:55That's an interesting segue for you.
02:56No particular order of topics here today, but because the attendance is so great and the league is very healthy,
03:02there's been a lot of talk about expansion.
03:04And most people think Vegas and Seattle, they're the two most prominent cities, at least mentioned.
03:10You and I have talked about expansion before.
03:11It's going to happen.
03:13I know New Yorkers may not care about it right now in the moment, but give me a take on
03:17where you guys are currently at with expansion.
03:20So we've been very public about the fact that we're particularly focused on Las Vegas and Seattle.
03:25I mean, and there are a lot of great cities out there that would like to have NBA teams.
03:29I mean, we've been playing even outside of the United States in Mexico City, regular seasons for almost 20 years
03:34now.
03:35You know, we used to be in Vancouver.
03:36You know, Montreal's interested, too, but we're focused on the U.S. right now.
03:40And in the U.S., Las Vegas and Seattle, the two cities that after we sort of surveyed the potential
03:47out there,
03:47those are the two cities that made the most sense for us to concentrate on.
03:51We had a resolution in our last board meeting where we came out just last month and said, you know,
03:58we're beginning this exploratory process.
04:00We haven't voted to expand.
04:02I think largely we want to talk to the potential groups, understand how it would work in those cities.
04:08Obviously, they redid the arena very recently in Seattle with a crack in play, you know, where, you know, the
04:13Sonics were years ago.
04:14But, you know, I tell people to this day, I mean, I think if David Stern were still around, I
04:19mean, it was not the best moment in league history when we left Seattle.
04:23I mean, we love Oklahoma City.
04:25Yeah, it turned out to be a great franchise and a great city for it.
04:28Right. So it really has nothing to do with where the team went.
04:31It's just that I would say top five things that people ask me about literally as I travel the world
04:36for this job.
04:36It's putting a team back in Seattle.
04:38Bringing the Sonics back.
04:39So, you know, we've been very focused on that market.
04:41And then Las Vegas, you know, is probably the entertainment epicenter, not just in the U.S.
04:46And you guys do a lot of business there already anyway.
04:47I was always, I used to joke when Oscar Goodman was the mayor and then Carolyn Goodman and his wife
04:52afterwards, I always said, we have a franchise here.
04:54We have the summer league.
04:55You know, it's two months.
04:56You know, it's become a fixture in July when we're there.
04:59You know, we played an all-star game there and a huge, huge fan base.
05:04And, you know, we were doing that before the other leagues went there.
05:06You know, at a time, as you guys will recall, some leagues wouldn't even take advertising from Las Vegas.
05:10You know, we've always loved the market.
05:13There's a lot of youth basketball that's played in Las Vegas.
05:17And so we have to figure out the situation there.
05:20There's a bunch of different sites where some groups are talking about building a new arena.
05:23There is an arena there, T-Mobile.
05:25And is it a blind bid for prospective owners?
05:28How does that work?
05:28No, so we actually, we hired a banker here in New York City, a guy named Paul Taubman, who's overseeing
05:34the process.
05:35And essentially what we said is we wanted to be very open about it and sort of formal in that
05:40saying, all right, you know, a bank is going to run a process.
05:43It's not an auction per se.
05:45You know, of course, value matters.
05:46But we said to groups, like, come in, you know, explain what your group, who your group would be.
05:51You know, would you try to use the existing arena?
05:54Would you, are you thinking about building a new arena?
05:56And then let's go through the economics because it's an interesting issue.
05:59It's, it's, it's not like typically maybe in business where you're selling someone something and say, good luck.
06:04Right.
06:04You know, I mean, this is, you're bringing in a new partner or two potential new partners in the league.
06:09So on one hand, you want to create as much value as possible.
06:13You also want them to do really well.
06:15Of course.
06:15Once they come into your league, you just don't want them to take your players.
06:18It's like, it's, sports leagues are such a fascinating dynamic of, you know, where you're, they're your partners, but you're
06:22also competing against them.
06:24So we just began that process.
06:26You know, we've seen a lot of preliminary interest, you know, of, of, there have been groups out there in
06:31Seattle and Vegas for years who've been contacting the league office.
06:34And just because I didn't want anyone to think I had a finger on the scale or I was picking
06:38favorites, I just said to everyone, we're not ready yet.
06:40I said, we wanted to get our new collective bargaining agreement done.
06:42We did that.
06:43We wanted our new media deals.
06:44And part of the reason you want your new media deals done is there's, there's a certain amount of math
06:49along the lines that, you know, if you know, existing revenue streams in this case,
06:54for the next decade, because of the national deals we did, obviously if you have 30, you know, if you're
06:58a team and you have 29 partners, now you have 31 partners, if you have 32 teams.
07:02So you're going to be diluted economically to a certain extent.
07:04So you do that math, but you get, there's talent dilution, but the hard part in terms of valuation.
07:10There's also an upfront payment though.
07:11Well, yeah, there's upfront payment, but then you have to determine, you know, in essence, what's the future value of
07:16the NBA?
07:17In a way, it's more, you know, when people think sometimes with expansion, it's, it's sort of, it's new money.
07:24In a way, what you're really doing is selling an interest in your existing franchise.
07:28It would be no different than if you do on your team and you took on a partner, you know,
07:31it's not, you know, if you, if you sold percent, you know, 5% of your team to someone, you're
07:36like, all right, I'm, I'm taking cash up front.
07:38But now for, for all future proceeds, they're, they're now my partner.
07:42It's a little bit like that for expansion.
07:44I'll, I'll just lastly say, you know, I do think that adding Seattle and Las Vegas potentially would, would be
07:52a creative, would overall add value to the league.
07:54I just think those, you know, AI, you know, what's happening in technology right now, so much of it is
08:00centered in Seattle.
08:01Amazon, of course, is in Seattle, you know, you know, a new partner of the NBA is Microsoft, who we've
08:05done so much with over the years.
08:07And as I said, Vegas is a really unique market in this country.
08:10I mean, you know, there's just, there's so much.
08:12There's an NFL football team there.
08:14Summer league is there.
08:15Yeah, baseball's coming.
08:16The Emirates Cup is there.
08:17Exactly.
08:18And I think, you know, putting aside sort of the gambling side, and now that's a national issue anyway.
08:23I just think that's like now it's great restaurants, great entertainment.
08:27It's where people go to have fun.
08:29You know, I, I, I just think that that could be, you know, a special place for the league.
08:32Are you at a place where you're comfortable putting a timetable on that when we can expect it?
08:35You know, I, I would say, you know, by the end of this year, certainly we want to be in
08:41a position where we would be announcing what we're doing.
08:43It would be a few seasons before the team would actually join the league, but we don't want this to
08:47go on forever.
08:47So, you know, process is beginning now.
08:49And I, I, you know, markets seem to speak, you know, the, the, pretty soon we'll have a sense of
08:54what the value is and who, who the main groups are who are interested.
08:56San Diego Padres just sold for $3.9 billion, which is crazy, considering the Mets sold for 2.4 or
09:035 years ago.
09:0360% in that market compared to what Steve Cohen spent.
09:06Talking to Adam Silver, NBA commissioner, you brought up gambling.
09:09Obviously your office is very sensitive to, to gambling and the integrity of the sport.
09:14As you know, I was brought in to speak to every NBA rookie at their symposium this past year,
09:18just to give them a clue into how serious, you know, gambling issues are.
09:22I suffered mine, you know, quite publicly.
09:25Damon Jones, I guess, is now going to plead guilty to what he was accused of as that, you know,
09:29case plays itself out.
09:31I know you guys were the first to kind of agree to allow people to gamble legally on your sport,
09:36but that was before the Cal, She's, and Polly markets of the world came in, these predictive markets.
09:41Is your concern level higher now?
09:43Because they're, they're not going away.
09:46A lot of money is being spent on those sites.
09:48It's an unregulated market.
09:49There are fights between the feds and the states in that.
09:52But as a, a guy who is very progressive in partnering with gambling sites, where are you on the predictive
09:57markets?
09:58Well, let me go back a bit, you know, in terms of the history here.
10:01So when, when you say we were the first to agree to allow betting, what we really were, were the
10:06first,
10:06and this was when I became commissioner in 2014 to say,
10:09we prefer legal, legal regulated sports betting to illegal underground betting.
10:15For sure.
10:15That was, that was my position.
10:17I wrote, you know, an op-ed piece that ended up getting published in the New York Times.
10:21Back then, people can obviously look online and read it.
10:23And I have the same view today that at that point in 2014, I used to say to people when
10:29sports betting was largely illegal in the United States, with the exception of Las Vegas,
10:34there's a few other small exceptions, say, go on Google and put in BetMBA.
10:37And now you can look at sites for the next week.
10:39And they have little flags for, you know, Viva and Ampex.
10:43And, you know, yes, a gray area of the law, those, many of those sites were offshore,
10:48but nothing was stopping people from betting, you know, in that manner online back then.
10:53And I think the internet, internet disrupted sports betting, just like it interrupt, interrupted
10:59or intercepted, you know, disrupted every other business.
11:03So then, then on top of that, you had massive amounts of illegal betting.
11:08And then in addition, because we're a global sport, and even today, people always forget
11:13when they're talking about sports betting in the United States that, you know, you, I
11:16think there are roughly 80, 8-0 countries in the world that have legalized sports betting
11:22on the NBA right now.
11:23Yeah, we were last, by the way.
11:24So then just throw on top of, you know, all of that, the illegal betting, the international
11:30markets, and then the state-by-state betting right now.
11:33That's where we find ourselves.
11:35We're roughly, you know, I think it's 39 states in the District of Columbia.
11:38Yeah, Wisconsin just said yes to you, so.
11:39Yeah, so call 40.
11:40Yeah.
11:41All of regulated sports betting.
11:42And if you're the league, you're dealing with 40 different jurisdictions, different rules,
11:46different enforcement, et cetera.
11:48Now, add the prediction markets.
11:50And people, I'm sure you mentioned, you know, Polymarket, Calci, you know, most listeners,
11:54are familiar with those prediction markets now.
11:56And one of the things that gets a lot of attention, a lot of media around, you know, supposedly
12:01people betting on, you know, when wars are going to start, real serious stuff like that.
12:06And sometimes it's kind of sort of fun stuff, you know, is this CEO going to say whatever
12:11word at a press conference?
12:12But the truth is, those are largely sports betting platforms.
12:15Enormous amount of sports betting on those platforms.
12:17And those are national.
12:19And so even for states like Texas and California, which haven't legalized sports betting,
12:24all of a sudden income the prediction markets, you know, they call them derivatives or contracts
12:28or swaps or whatever else.
12:29But you and I would call it a sports betting if you looked at it, it's gambling.
12:32So long-winded answer to your question.
12:36That's where we find ourselves right now.
12:38I don't think you could turn back the clock if you wanted.
12:41If you told me you had your choice, you could erase all of that and just have illegal markets.
12:45I don't think that would be good for our business.
12:47And now back to some of the issues that we've had in the league.
12:50When people do bet legally, and I've made this analogy before, just like a stock market,
12:55the computers are so sophisticated.
12:57The algorithms are so sophisticated.
12:58If something odd is going on, the computers pick it up.
13:01And that doesn't get talked about enough.
13:04Obviously, like, I'm a responsible gaming ambassador for FanDuel.
13:06People know about that.
13:07I've worked with the NBA PA.
13:09Everyone knows that now as well.
13:10You know, the reason that we are, I say we, collectively.
13:13The reason that the leagues, not just the NBA, have been able to discover when active members have been gambling
13:19is because they have deals with the regulated market.
13:23If you guys weren't partners with the regulated market, these guys never would have been caught.
13:28No question about it.
13:30And that's the upside.
13:30Nobody talks about that.
13:31And there are people that are always going to be detractors no matter what you say to them.
13:34But without the partnership, whether these guys did or not, the courts will decide that.
13:38But you never would have found them if not for the partnership with the regulated markets.
13:43No question.
13:44And the part I would just say now, what we would like to see as the NBA, and I think
13:48the other leagues agree with me,
13:50is that I think listeners would be surprised how little say we have over the bets that are placed on
13:56our sport.
13:57For example, you know, not to go too much in the weeds, but people follow sports betting know,
14:01you know, when I was a kid, you largely bet who was going to, the outcome of the game.
14:06Maybe there was a spread, maybe there was, you know, there were odds, but, you know,
14:09you bet before the game and you waited for the outcome.
14:11Now, the vast majority of the action takes place during the game, so-called in-play betting.
14:17And in our sport, people are betting on how many points in a quarter, how many rebounds, halftime,
14:22or, you know, there's a lot of engagement that comes from that because people are on their phone
14:26and they're betting throughout.
14:27You know, most bettors are betting relatively small amounts of money.
14:31People would be surprised.
14:32I think FanDuel told us the average bet is like $5.
14:35I mean, people are just, you know, it's small bets that people are betting throughout.
14:38And obviously the vast majority of people are not betting over their heads.
14:41It's a form of enjoyment.
14:42Yeah, so let me just be clear.
14:44Like I'm an obviously guy who has a compulsive gambling problem.
14:48It's at most 2%.
14:49And that's a lot of people.
14:50Sure.
14:51But this is not a 50% of the people that gamble are going to present with a problem.
14:54Right.
14:54But we think what once you're going to allow and all those different, you know, types of proposition bets,
15:00that's to us where the problems start because when, like, take the unders in particular.
15:06So it's one thing if you're betting on how many points a player is going to score in a game.
15:10Let's say you're betting that a player is going to score at least 22 points in a game.
15:14It'd be very hard to manipulate that if you're a player.
15:17I mean, you're trying your hardest and you want to win the game, get as many points as possible.
15:20On the other hand, if people can bet your unders, it's like, and especially it's not just unders in terms
15:25of points,
15:26unders assist, unders rebounds.
15:28Like, I think that's a root of a lot of the problems.
15:31Yeah, under parlay should be outlawed.
15:32Right.
15:32And so I'm just saying, like, whether they should be strictly outlawed or the league should have more of a
15:38say.
15:39This is, you know, we're the ones who are responsible overall for the conduct of our players.
15:45We deal with the fallout.
15:47It's our intellectual property.
15:49But essentially what's happened state by state is once the Supreme Court said this should be handled on a state
15:55by state basis,
15:57the state regulators then issue licenses to the betting companies and the leagues don't have a seat at the table.
16:05Now, we, just so it's clear, I'm like, we benefit from sports betting in that we sell our data.
16:12We don't directly benefit from bets that are placed, but we sell data feeds and we take advertising.
16:17So I'm not pretending that, you know, it's, it's, we don't make money off it, but it's not nearly what
16:23people think.
16:23It's a small part of our business.
16:25Probably the greatest benefit for the league has less to do with the revenue streams we get than the engagement
16:29that follows.
16:30Your engagement for young, male adults.
16:32Yeah, and it's not just, as I said, it's not just, oh, let's, I'll bet and wait to get the
16:37outcome of the game.
16:37Because if you're going to be betting throughout the game, you're likely going to be watching it because it's, it's
16:43becomes very relevant.
16:44What's happening quarter by quarter.
16:45So I like, I'm an interesting spot here because on one hand, I, you know, I don't think you can
16:51turn the clock back, but I'm pro regulation here.
16:53Like, you know, I got some letters from elected officials after we had those indictments earlier in our season.
16:59And they said, like, you better get your house in order.
17:01We're going to pass more legislation.
17:02And I went like, no, pass more legislation.
17:04Like I, I, we want more regulation here.
17:07I'm, you know, whether, you know, to address problem gambling and detection there.
17:11And just back to your point about what's happening in the data that we get.
17:14So if you're in 40 different states, there's not a central database right now.
17:18Right.
17:19You know, it's, it's, so I like the idea that this is going to be more federalized.
17:24And, and so with the prediction markets, at least that's national.
17:29It's, it's regulated by the CFTC, you know, you know, and whether they're the right body, I'm not sure long
17:36-term, but I'd like there to be a common set of rules nationally.
17:39I'd like there to be a common database so that if you have an issue in Illinois, you can't just
17:43go then bet in New York.
17:46Now, the gaming companies are doing, you know, I think a responsible job trying to create their own databases, working
17:52with the leagues, and it's not perfect.
17:54But again, I think it's better than pushing it all underground because as I said, like the disruption that comes
18:01through things like the internet, and it's like once you open, once people can do things digitally.
18:07And that's why I also mentioned the global market as well, because it's, you know, there's no firewalls globally.
18:13So that's what happened when, you know, my example of before it was legal in the United States going on
18:18Google, but now it's 80 different countries.
18:20And like this notion in a digital world, like, sure, is it easier if it's FanDuel on your app and
18:25a phone here and it's legal in the United States, but even if technically we're illegal, you know, look, there's
18:31probably more, even with all the 40 states, the prediction markets, at least the best estimates I've seen, still majority
18:37of the betting in this country is still likely illegal, not legal.
18:41I don't know about that, but look, if I want to make a wager, whether it's legal or not, I'm
18:45going to find a way to make it.
18:45And that's to your point, I was gambling with an offshore site in Malta.
18:49I couldn't find Malta on a map, but if I really want to gamble, I will find a way to
18:54gamble, you know.
18:55Talking to Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, we'll get to load management in a second.
18:59I thought it was interesting that the NBA, I guess, through an arbiter on the NBA PA, decided with Luka
19:06Doncic and with Cade Cunningham to allow them the exception.
19:10So they both got the 64 games, there's a 65-game rule to be eligible for certain postseason awards and
19:17max contracts.
19:18Walk me through what your take was on that, because my belief was, with all due respect, I know Luka
19:22left the country to see his child be born.
19:24We all can respect that.
19:26But there's still 15, 16 other games he missed, not only because of injury, some load management there.
19:31Cade Cunningham, of course, had the punctured lung, which kept him out 11 games, had an ankle injury earlier in
19:37the season.
19:38But you did set a number.
19:40The players agreed to that number of 65 games for eligibility for, like, first-team All-NBA and, obviously, the
19:46max contract that comes with it.
19:47What was your take when those two guys appealed it and that the arbiter ruled in their favor?
19:53I need your brother Jeff here as my lawyer.
19:55Remember, we used to work together many years ago.
19:57You guys would say well for many years ago, yes.
19:58So, when we negotiated the collective bargaining agreement, there was language that talked about exceptional circumstances.
20:05And what often happens when you create language like that, when you're cutting deals and compromising, you don't lay out
20:10precisely what exceptional circumstances mean.
20:13I would say here, you know, we negotiated whether the league wanted it to be 67, they wanted it to
20:19be 63.
20:19You know, it's a typical way these things come together.
20:22And we compromised on 65.
20:24But the exceptional circumstances notion was that if you're going to have a bright line, if somebody's right around the
20:29line, and in this case, you know, it was a punctured lung or whether it was, you know, had to
20:35leave the country or wanted to leave the country for birth of his child, you know, and came right up
20:39to the line, missed by a game, you know, we in the union came together and said, okay, they qualify.
20:44You know, and then the more controversial one, I guess now is like with Ant, you know, where he was
20:49at, but he was at 60, you know, and, you know, had an injury.
20:53But I think that the view of the arbitrator in this case was that when we negotiated to 65 games,
20:58which is 80% of the season, that was taking into account injuries like that, you know, because it wasn't,
21:03it wasn't load management.
21:04It was like, all right, we got to draw the line somewhere.
21:07Now, I would only say so, you know, you know, you know, I feel bad for Anthony Edwards.
21:13He's a great guy, you know, and, you know, but I still think the rule is working in that.
21:19Remember, even when we came together with the union and passed this rule, one third of all NBA players the
21:26season before we put this rule in place did not play 65 games.
21:30Which is crazy.
21:30Which is crazy.
21:31And so, like, and remember, from the union standpoint, it's zero sum.
21:35You know, in our collective bargain agreement, if we pay out 50% of the revenue, we pay out 50
21:40% of the revenue.
21:41I mean, where this becomes important is that not just, I think, for players, deservedly, who want to be eligible
21:46for these honors, but it also kind of impact on their contract.
21:49Sure.
21:49But to the extent one player doesn't get the money, another player does.
21:52So the union's always on both sides of these things.
21:55And we always knew, anywhere you drew the line, that there would be guys who, you know, would both be
22:01disappointed and some people might say it was unfair.
22:04Now, I guess your point is you could just say, just make it 65.
22:07Right.
22:08Hard rules, 65.
22:09But, you know, when we negotiated, we said exceptional circumstances.
22:13Right.
22:13So, I understand it.
22:15Back to what you said earlier about load management.
22:17So, games missed by star players is down 31% this season.
22:23Right.
22:23So, it's working.
22:24I mean, like, we got a problem with real injuries.
22:27Sure.
22:27But I think it changed the attitude about guys.
22:30But part of it was, you got to play the nationally televised games.
22:33You want to make sure the biggest audience sees our best players, right?
22:35Yeah, no, but I'm just saying, we put various things in place.
22:38Right.
22:38You know, and part of also is financial.
22:40This is to incentivize guys to play the games.
22:43And, you know, whether this is the last, well, I can guarantee this isn't the last word on this issue.
22:48Sure.
22:48We're always thinking about that.
22:49We're always working with the player association on it.
22:51But at the end of the day, these guys make a lot of money.
22:54Now, I am also sensitive, of course, like I was reading some of the commentary, you know, today, or listening
22:59to some of it where people were saying, you get the other side of it.
23:02Well, you have 65 games.
23:03You're forcing guys to play when they're injured.
23:05I don't think there's any evidence.
23:07You're actually allowing them to miss 20% of the season and still get paid.
23:11And obviously, we'd be incredibly sensitive to that if there was some sense.
23:15But we're not seeing that.
23:16Injuries were actually, not an all-time, but were down lowest in three years this year.
23:20Do you think that's because guys are taking days off?
23:23No.
23:24You know, this is a really tough one.
23:27Because, you know, as I've said before, the science is not great on load management.
23:32I mean, there's no question that, in a back-to-back game, we see from a performance standpoint that guys'
23:38performance will decrease to a certain extent in the second game of a back-to-back.
23:42We don't see an increase in number of injuries in a back-to-back.
23:45Okay.
23:46We don't see an increase in number of injuries over the course of the season.
23:49I mean, the rate of injuries, if anything, is higher earlier in the season than late in the season.
23:53We don't see a greater rate of injuries in the playoffs than we do in the regular season.
23:57So, I mean, this all ties also into, and obviously, I'm aware of the commentary around whether we should have
24:03an 82-game season.
24:04And it's interesting there, because part of winning a championship historically in this league is playing through an 82-game
24:10season.
24:10And, like, yes, would there be an economic issue to shorten the season?
24:14Of course.
24:14But, you know, where we started was we have highest viewership in 24 years, record attendance.
24:19Clearly, our fans aren't saying we want fewer games.
24:22We want more.
24:23So, like, this, it's a bit confounding sometimes here.
24:28Like, to me, the most critical issue to focus on is, you know, the long-term injuries guys get and
24:34what's happening now in the league.
24:36Why is it, to the extent those injuries are up, that, you know, it's an 80-year-old league.
24:40It's been a, you know, an 82-game season since the 60s.
24:44You know, that if anybody who came to our practice facilities now or see the number of trainers and the
24:51PT, like, why do we have more injuries than we didn't know this?
24:53This weird theory, not all injuries, with all the technology we have and the medical science we have and the
24:59trainers and the nutrition, I'm, this just might be me, maybe I'm too old school.
25:04I'm still flabbergasted that guys don't wear high tops anymore.
25:08These guys are wearing, like, low, like Air Force Ones, whatever the sneaker brand is.
25:12And I'm like, you grow up what you wear.
25:14You wear high tops, right?
25:15And they don't wear high tops anymore.
25:17Yeah, but, Craig, but even there, I mean, like, guys obviously don't want to get injured and the shoe companies,
25:21you know, don't want the players who are there.
25:23They don't want to get injured either.
25:25So, you know, I've been out, for example, to the R&D Center in Beaverton, Oregon, where Nike is.
25:30You know, they changed their theory along the way some number of years ago that guys having their ankles not
25:35restricted.
25:36It's better for them.
25:36It was better for them.
25:37But I would say also, when I got to the league in the early 90s, most players took a large
25:43part of the summer off, like, just completely shut down.
25:46And when you went into training camp, guys often came in a little bit heavy.
25:49You know, and training camp was a time where you got back into shape and you dropped a little bit
25:55of weight.
25:55Now, guys playing the finals maybe take a day off and they're back in the gym the next day.
26:00And what's interesting, though, is, and you look at the sort of generalizing a bit, but what you see with
26:06a lot of our players, they're working hard in the gym every day, but they're not playing a lot of
26:10five and five basketball.
26:11And the teams, because of this theory of load management, and this is something Steve Kerr has talked about, they
26:16hardly practice anymore.
26:17Because now—
26:18I've seen a lot of coaches complain about that.
26:20As we've—so we were told from the teams, you know, because the footprint isn't changing, but we're able, you know,
26:26through great schedulers, you know, to reduce the amount of back-to-backs, reduce, you know, and almost eliminate four
26:32games out of five nights.
26:33But then the teams are saying, well, now we're not practicing as much because it's game off, game off, and
26:40we'd rather rest in those days.
26:41And it may be ultimately—and maybe this goes to your point, who knows about the shoes—that they should have more
26:47load, not less load.
26:48Like, I would just say, like, everybody—the one thing I can say from, you know, Andre Iguodala has had the
26:53Players Association now, former great player, you know, and the executives there.
26:57We talk about this stuff all the time.
26:58There is one thing there's absolute agreement on between the league, the players, the Players Association, our teams, is keeping
27:04guys healthy.
27:05Especially even now among the teams, as there's—guys tend to have shorter contracts.
27:10Like, it's a place where teams don't really want to compete with each other as to who has the best
27:14training technique.
27:15Have you seen a proposal come across your desk yet, regardless of where it may have came from, that you
27:20said, well, that's a good answer for load management.
27:22You've talked a lot.
27:23You get asked about it every time you speak about the league and the health of the league.
27:26That it is the number one primary concern and issue, maybe, this entire offseason.
27:30We need to fix it.
27:31There's got to be a solution.
27:33Have you seen a proposal come across your desk yet that you said, hey, that's not a bad one?
27:37I saw one funny one where, you know, the more load management, the less beer costs.
27:42I saw that one.
27:44Well, when you said—you said a minute ago that the number one issue on your desk, I forget what the
27:48over-under was on when you'd get to tanking in these conversations.
27:54I would say, in all seriousness, that on one hand, that issue has become a priority, obviously the behavior we've
28:03seen in this team.
28:03But I think the good news among the issues that the league is facing, in many ways, that's an easier
28:10issue to address.
28:11Because, and I'm happy to talk about that, but I would say back to load management and to injuries, as
28:17I said, we're betwixted in certain ways by it.
28:21Because, as I said, we've never had better doctors and orthopedics and, you know, advanced imaging and the best training
28:29practices in the world.
28:30Well, and ultimately the goal there is what is—even teams that engage in load management, obviously the goal there is
28:37to keep their player healthy and on the floor.
28:38That has nothing to do with tanking.
28:39They don't want to lose the game.
28:41Right, so let's pivot to tanking.
28:42All right, so this is a fascinating one to me.
28:45Because, so the league is 80 years old.
28:47We've had a draft for 75 years.
28:48And, at least since the 80s, when we put in place, you know, prior to my time, but with the
28:54league put in place, you know, a draft lottery, as each successive change in the draft lottery, you know, five
29:00times, we've continued to flatten the odds, to disincentivize teams from doing this.
29:06Yet, you are now seeing, and we saw it this season, more tanking than any time in the history of
29:11the league.
29:11And so, on one hand—and remember, you know, teams that are tanking, it's a strategy to win, not to lose.
29:18It's just a longer-term strategy to win.
29:19Right.
29:20And, like, I'll say, so why is this happening after all these years that now people could say, in part,
29:27there's a perceived very deep draft this year?
29:29But I don't think that's just it.
29:30I think it—part, it's a societal issue that it's sort of this, you know, winner, you know, sort of—everything's now
29:41about winning and less about the process in terms of winning, kind of a winner-take-all society a little
29:47bit.
29:47Championship or bust.
29:48Yeah, it's like, it never—you know, I've been with the league for 34 years now.
29:53It's—you felt that change over the years where it was almost now, you know, even teams in the playoffs, it's
29:59become, are you going to win the championship or not?
30:01And I think once you have that mindset, it sort of opened the door to say, okay, well, if we're
30:07not going to even be competing for a championship, who cares how many games we lose?
30:12Again, all based on a strategy of trying to win a championship, to win more games.
30:17Right.
30:17Two years from now, three years from now.
30:18Yeah, so, long story short, I mean, not to make any excuses, I mean, there's—I'm just some—as I watch what's
30:24happening and what's happened over the last, you know, several years, and remember, we've changed the draft lottery five times.
30:30This is not a new issue in the league.
30:32It's just gotten to a point, you know, where we—obviously, we have to make changes here and change the incentives
30:37because—and a little bit, maybe, modern analytics, and again, just to look at another sport, I mean, I think baseball's
30:43150 years old.
30:44Just in the last few years, they made some incredible changes, which really made a difference, you know, things like
30:49a pitch clock and, you know, expanding this, slightly increasing the size of the bases and, you know, infield shift
30:56rules and things like that of a 150-year-old sport because teams just started looking at analytics in a
31:01way differently than they had all those years.
31:03So, we're no different, you know, we will address it.
31:06There's a bunch of different ideas on the table.
31:09My sense is we may be looking at something that's not, frankly, a forever solution because I think there's some
31:15really interesting ideas what people call in a category of marketplace solutions where teams have, you know, a tradable asset.
31:22You know, there's, like, some really clever things that people are talking about, but short-term, we have to do
31:27something for next season.
31:29Largely, it means that in order to disincentivize the teams, you have to dramatically flatten the odds so there's no
31:34incentive to being—
31:35Beyond just no incentive, you actually have to punish teams to do it.
31:38Well, what's interesting, they're, you know—
31:40Or incentivized for competing, which we've tried to do.
31:42We have the play-in tournament and such things.
31:44Yeah, and look, the play-in tournaments, look, the incredible games we've had this week in the play-in tournament.
31:48I mean, I mean, like, I had heard, like, early in season people suggesting, well, you might prefer to be
31:52in the lottery than, you know, to be in the playoffs.
31:55I mean, look how these teams are engaged in the playoffs.
31:56No, they're competing.
31:57There's no question about that.
31:58You know, the cup tournament midseason we put in place, obviously teams competed like crazy.
32:03And also, you know, back to what we were talking about earlier in terms of where sports is in the
32:08hierarchy of entertainment.
32:09I mean, you now see when our games are generally the highest-rated program in their market when they're on.
32:16We hear in New York when the Knicks play, they're the highest-rated program in town.
32:21That wasn't true in the old days.
32:22And one of the reasons we have the highest viewership in 24 years is because when we negotiated our television
32:26deals,
32:27we got all this primetime network exposure that we couldn't dream of in the old days.
32:32Remember, David Stern used to tell the story that when he became commissioner in 1984, the finals couldn't get in
32:38primetime.
32:39They were in tape delay.
32:41So I'm just like, the world, society's changing around us.
32:44We have to change our rules.
32:45I think this one, you know, is much more addressable than the injuries and the load management.
32:51Do you get a sense that collectively the majority of owners agree with the principle that we need to stop
32:56tanking even though many of them have done it?
32:58Yeah, and I've heard from a lot of owners this season who said,
33:01I never was willing to engage in this in the past even when maybe basketball people would be coming to
33:06me and saying this is the best path.
33:07I never wanted to be part of it.
33:09But there's a sort of, I don't know what the right term is, like a sort of a group thinker
33:13or whatever else that, you know,
33:15once a sort of a core group of teams are doing it, you wake up one day and say, wait,
33:20I'm going to be at a competitive disadvantage.
33:22Because there's no doubt how valuable draft picks are in this league.
33:26So then the kind of, you know, I don't know, the guardrails just come off.
33:31And you say, like, all right, you know, this has somehow become an acceptable practice.
33:36And, I mean, you can feel it even when we, you know, find some teams earlier in this year.
33:41It was sort of the response was, okay, you know, it's a cost of doing business.
33:44And once you get there, you know you have a huge problem.
33:47So I think, Chris, to your point, like, it's not just disincentivizing them, you know, from tanking.
33:53It's incentivizing them to win.
33:55You know, there may be some other concepts we're looking at, you know, internationally.
33:59I mean, people follow, you know, global soccer say, you know, why doesn't it happen there?
34:03You could get relegated out of the league.
34:05To the G League.
34:06Yeah, I mean, can you imagine that at the two bottom performing teams?
34:09I would say I wouldn't want to be you.
34:11There's no plans to do that.
34:12But there may be sort of a further disincentive needed that, for example, if you're a bottom three record,
34:20that maybe you lose some of your odds.
34:22Let me ask you this.
34:23Would you ever consider, since I think the mid-season tournament's been successful,
34:28obviously the Knicks beat the Spurs this year.
34:29We were thrilled about that.
34:30And I was happy no banner went up.
34:32We could talk about that another day.
34:34Would you ever consider, do you think the owners or the players would ever agree to,
34:37the teams that don't make even the plan,
34:40so the teams that aren't participating for the postseason,
34:43that you had a mini tournament among them,
34:45and the winner of that tournament gets the number one pick?
34:48We've talked about it.
34:50Fred Van Fleet, who's the, you know, current Houston Rocket,
34:54who's the head of the Players Association, President Players Association,
34:57you know, as a current player.
34:59Andre is, you know, executive director.
35:01We talked about that concept.
35:02I think he called it the toilet bowl.
35:05But I do think, like, part of the issue there is,
35:10you're asking guys to play, arguably to lose their job.
35:13Sure.
35:14Like, you know what you're saying?
35:15You're playing for a draft, and it takes a lot.
35:17I just, I, those, some of those concepts are interesting,
35:21but I don't think, like, yes, there are financial incentives
35:25for the cup tournament, the in-season tournament.
35:28I need to get to the point where then, like,
35:30throwing additional money to the guys and saying, like,
35:32all right, you know, your regular season's over.
35:34Now play in this other tournament, you know, where.
35:37They might not buy into it.
35:38For your team, especially when, you know, several,
35:41either you might lose your job, the draft pick,
35:43some of those guys aren't even going to be on the team the next year.
35:45I don't know.
35:45You know, everything's on the table.
35:46I think that one thing we're seeing with the cup tournament
35:50is that creating more games of consequences are interesting.
35:54It's interesting for the players, too.
35:55Are you keeping the crazy color floors?
35:57Yeah, I love the color floors.
36:00You know, can I just say one thing about the colored floors?
36:02That when we put that in place, the idea was,
36:04as you were flipping through the television channel,
36:06you'd see these colored floors, and you'd say,
36:08like, something special going on.
36:09What's fascinating to me, when we started,
36:12I'd go around the league and I'd talk to the players.
36:14The players were like, ah, it's cup night.
36:16You come out and the floor would be a different color.
36:18They probably didn't know until, right?
36:18Yeah, I mean, I don't want to say they didn't know,
36:20but it, like, it got them sort of going, too.
36:22But on the tanking thing, so you mentioned
36:23not having a forever answer.
36:24My only question left on that would be,
36:26are you at the point, frustration level,
36:27where you are willing to try these trial balloons?
36:30That you would, before vetting it to having a perfect answer,
36:33like, you're at the point where we need to try something,
36:35and we could see some dramatic implementation
36:38into some sort of plan,
36:39even if it hasn't been fully vetted, fully thought out,
36:42just to try and attempt to get something going
36:44in a different direction.
36:45Yeah, you said it better than I did.
36:47So we already scheduled a board meeting
36:49of the NBA owners for late May,
36:52and a change in the lottery system
36:55requires three quarters of the owners to agree,
36:58so there's got to be some compromising
37:00among some of the teams,
37:02but my anticipation is we will absolutely pass something
37:06for next season,
37:07because the problem has become so pronounced.
37:10And what's unfortunate, too,
37:13is there's been great competition
37:15on the floor this season.
37:17We're seeing it this week in the play-in,
37:21probably wide open playoffs as we've seen
37:24in so many years.
37:25East especially.
37:25Seven different champions, seven years,
37:27but I think the amazing competition in the West as well.
37:30And it's unfair to the teams and the players
37:32that the storyline around the tanking
37:34is taking away from that.
37:35Hopefully we can put it behind us
37:36now that the playoffs started,
37:37but I think that, you know,
37:39I've said it publicly,
37:40I mean, we have to deal with this.
37:42It would be irresponsible.
37:44Last couple minutes here
37:44with Commissioner Adam Silver, NBA,
37:46and obviously we appreciate your time.
37:48Playoffs, you have two big games tonight, of course,
37:50for the eight seeds in the East,
37:51and of course the West,
37:53and Steph Curry's game the other night
37:54was just stupid, like 10 years ago.
37:56Like, damn near 40 points.
37:58Draymond Green locked down Kawhi Leonard
38:00in that fourth quarter.
38:01It was great basketball, not good basketball.
38:04I guess the last couple things,
38:05let me ask you about my favorite player
38:07to talk about, LeBron James.
38:08Obviously he's the only player
38:09that's ever been given his own patch,
38:11a couple of them,
38:12as he's achieved other things
38:13no other player's achieved.
38:15Has he talked to you guys yet
38:17about coming back for one final year?
38:20Do you have any insight into his plans
38:22in that regard?
38:23I assume you want him back?
38:24You know, I want LeBron to play
38:25as long as he actually wants to play.
38:27I mean, it's not just a 41-year-old player
38:30in the league with the most points ever
38:32in the most so many different categories,
38:34but he's still playing at an incredibly high level.
38:36It's not like he's just sort of out there.
38:37It's unfortunate that Austin Reeves got hurt
38:39and Luka got hurt
38:40because they started playing
38:42their best basketball of the year.
38:43It got to the three seed
38:44before those two guys got hurt.
38:46Yeah, but he, no,
38:47I haven't talked to him
38:48since the season ended.
38:49I mean, I have every indication
38:50that he plans to keep playing next season.
38:52I mean, he certainly hasn't said.
38:53Does he want to patch for every last game
38:55or just a couple?
38:57He hasn't mentioned that,
38:58but look, I mean,
38:59what he's done for this league
39:01is quite incredible.
39:03You know, in some ways,
39:04I think he doesn't get enough credit.
39:06I mean, just by playing at such a high level
39:08for so many years,
39:09the amount of global interest around him.
39:12And so, again,
39:13I want him to play as long as he wants to,
39:15but again, we should all remember,
39:17we've all, in our watch players
39:19in many other sports,
39:20just kind of hang on at the end.
39:22Sure.
39:22He's not hanging on.
39:23He's playing at incredibly high level.
39:24He's doing things 41-year-olds don't do.
39:26And obviously...
39:27He's doing things 25-year-olds don't do.
39:29He's not my favorite guy in the world.
39:31You're getting him to say nice things about him.
39:33I'm impressed.
39:33No, I think, look,
39:34he's one of the great players
39:35to ever put on sneakers
39:36to play the sport of basketball.
39:40I have my other issues with him.
39:41It's not about how well he plays or not.
39:43You know, he and Clutch,
39:44we're behind for a short period of time.
39:46You know, an NBA Europe,
39:47a version of professional basketball in Europe.
39:49And I think they've scuttled those plans.
39:51But look, we've seen the NFL,
39:52you know, globalizing the sport.
39:54Baseball, of course,
39:55globalizing the sport.
39:56More so through the World Baseball Classic
39:57for them, obviously Japan's huge market
40:00for you guys,
40:01as well as baseball with Otani
40:03doing what he's doing
40:03for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
40:05Do you see a day
40:06where the NBA
40:08has international games
40:09beyond Canada and Mexico
40:10and where there might even be
40:12NBA Europe?
40:13I do.
40:14So right now,
40:16we're working on a project
40:17that we're calling NBA Europe,
40:19which is an independent league in Europe.
40:20As you mentioned,
40:21there were discussions
40:22from other groups
40:23about potentially doing the same thing.
40:24But our deputy commissioner,
40:27Mark Tatum,
40:27is leading these efforts.
40:29We're talking to several
40:30major European cities,
40:32you know,
40:32working with J.P. Morgan
40:33here in New York
40:35and another firm called Rain
40:36about the opportunity.
40:38And right now,
40:39basketball is the number two sport
40:41in Europe,
40:41but from a commercial standpoint,
40:43generates about 1% of the revenue.
40:45Second to soccer, I assume?
40:46Second to soccer, yeah.
40:46But, you know,
40:47but from a commercial standpoint,
40:49it's minuscule.
40:50And so the marketplace
40:52sees a big opportunity
40:53in basketball.
40:53I mean,
40:54we've already talked about,
40:55you know,
40:55you know,
40:56you know,
40:56of course,
40:57you know,
40:58Luka,
40:58whether it's,
40:59you know,
40:59Shea Gilchrist,
41:00Alexander's Canadian
41:01and he's not European,
41:02but, you know,
41:03the number of international players
41:04we have now,
41:05you know,
41:06you know,
41:06Giannis,
41:08Wemby,
41:08you know,
41:09some of our very best players,
41:11you know,
41:11Jokic,
41:11I could keep going on.
41:12But,
41:13so,
41:14we,
41:14about 15% of our league now
41:16is made up of European players.
41:18If anybody was watching
41:19the NCAA championship,
41:21like there'd been a huge increase
41:23in the last few years,
41:24largely because of NIL payments,
41:27they can make more now
41:28playing in college
41:29than they could in Europe.
41:30It's pretty straightforward.
41:31So,
41:31there's no doubt
41:32that there's amazing amount
41:34of top-notch basketball
41:36being played in Europe
41:37and great development of players.
41:38So,
41:39we're in this process right now,
41:41you know,
41:41so this would be
41:42a stand-alone league,
41:44but I would just say
41:45over time
41:45that,
41:47you know,
41:47I've been following,
41:48there's a,
41:49it used to be the Concorde,
41:50obviously,
41:51Supersonic Jets.
41:51There's a company called BoomSonic
41:53that's saying by 2030
41:54they're going to have
41:55Supersonic Jets again.
41:56Because travel's a big concern.
41:58Travel's a big,
41:58but I'm just saying
41:59to your point about,
42:00you know,
42:00whether initially
42:01you could see some of those teams
42:02competing in some tournaments
42:04we had throughout the season,
42:05but long-term,
42:07I could definitely imagine
42:08we could have a division
42:08in Europe
42:09and,
42:10you know,
42:11obviously,
42:11it's a very global game
42:13and also,
42:14for our sport,
42:16you know,
42:16from a commercial standpoint,
42:18the arena is so much
42:19part of the operation
42:20and what's interesting,
42:21like,
42:21for those who,
42:22you know,
42:22watched the last Summer Olympics,
42:24you know,
42:24talk about Steph Curry
42:25and his heroics,
42:25you know,
42:26in Paris,
42:27you know,
42:27it's a bit surprising.
42:29Like,
42:29in Paris,
42:30the arena is really old.
42:31It's fine,
42:32you know,
42:32for playing a basketball game,
42:33but from a commercial standpoint,
42:35they don't have all the
42:36back-of-house space
42:37that we have in arenas,
42:38all the great restaurants
42:39and lounges
42:40and all the other
42:40commercial opportunities.
42:42So,
42:42the interesting thing
42:43about our sport,
42:44it's both for these
42:45great European cities,
42:46it's not just
42:47bringing in,
42:48you know,
42:49a potential
42:49NBA-type team,
42:50but also,
42:51same thing you've seen
42:52market by market
42:53in the United States,
42:54you know,
42:54sort of started with
42:55this LA Live Complex
42:56where,
42:57you know,
42:57it's an arena,
42:58you can see it
42:58in San Francisco now,
43:00together with retail,
43:01commercial space,
43:02residential.
43:03So,
43:03it looks like
43:04a really big opportunity
43:05we're spending time on.
43:06As I said,
43:07like,
43:07whether we have a division
43:08is something
43:08way down the road,
43:09but I think
43:10short-term,
43:10you could see,
43:11you know,
43:12a really successful
43:13stand-alone league
43:13in Europe.
43:14Last two quickies for me,
43:15and we appreciate your time.
43:16One,
43:16are you prepared
43:17to be on
43:1833rd and 7th
43:20in mid-June
43:20and hand James Dole
43:22in the NBA championship trophy?
43:23Of course,
43:24I mean,
43:24if they,
43:25I'm always prepared
43:26for the moment.
43:27I've been working
43:27with Jim for decades,
43:28and if the Knicks
43:29were to emerge,
43:30you know,
43:31as a championship,
43:32I would love to hand
43:33the trophy to Jim
43:34or,
43:34you know,
43:34whatever team wins
43:35for that matter.
43:36And then my final question
43:37for you,
43:37and I have to ask it
43:38because I've asked you,
43:39I've asked Rob Manfred,
43:40I've asked Gary Bettman,
43:42how much longer
43:43do you intend
43:43to be the commissioner
43:44of the NBA?
43:45You know,
43:46I really don't know.
43:46I haven't thought about it
43:48that much recently.
43:50You know,
43:51as commissioners go,
43:52I'm still,
43:53I think,
43:53relatively on the young side
43:54for commissioners,
43:56but I love my job.
43:57I mean,
43:57at least for now,
43:58I plan to stay
43:58as long as the owners want me.
44:00And you've plans
44:01for which games
44:01you're going to attend
44:02throughout the playoffs?
44:03How do you do that?
44:04You know,
44:04it's sort of
44:05almost game by game,
44:06week by week.
44:07I know right now
44:08I'll be in Cleveland tomorrow.
44:09Okay.
44:10Where the Raptors are playing.
44:12But don't,
44:13you know,
44:13we'll put together plans.
44:14I mean,
44:14it gets a little complicated
44:16because I also,
44:17my schedule fills up
44:18in New York,
44:19you know,
44:19where our offices are here
44:20and then I also want
44:21to hit the road.
44:22So,
44:22you know,
44:22I bounce around a lot.
44:23I try to get to every,
44:24you know,
44:25obviously I'm at every finals game,
44:26but I try to get to
44:27at least one game
44:28in every season.
44:28Show your face
44:29in different arenas.
44:30Well,
44:30you know how much
44:30I love the NBA
44:32and appreciate your friendship.
44:33You've never said no
44:34when I've asked you
44:34to come on any show
44:35I've done.
44:36So I very much
44:37appreciate that,
44:37especially on the eve
44:38of the playoffs.
44:39Two big games tonight.
44:40The Knicks,
44:40of course,
44:41for our purposes.
44:42Tomorrow.
44:46I know a lot of people
44:47more than any other league
44:48and I don't quite get it,
44:50like to take shots
44:51at the NBA
44:52and a lot of it
44:53from former players.
44:54I don't see former NFL players,
44:56NHL players,
44:57baseball players
44:57take the shots
44:58at the new generation
45:00more than they do the NBA.
45:02But when it's all said and done
45:03and the dust clears,
45:04I'm not sure if the NBA
45:05has ever been healthier
45:06and it has its issues,
45:07but congratulations on that
45:09because I think
45:10that does start
45:10with your stewardship
45:11of the league
45:12and your relationship
45:12with the players union.
45:14So again,
45:14thank you for coming in.
45:15Appreciate the time.
45:16And good luck
45:17on another successful postseason.
45:18Thank you, Craig.
45:19Thank you, Chris.
45:20Thanks for having me.
45:20We'll take a quick break.
45:21That's Adam Silver,
45:22Commissioner of the NBA.
45:23More coming up right after this.
45:25When fighting lymphoma,
45:26leukemia,
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