Before I reply to everyone, I feel like there is a fundamental misunderstanding of how the NBA works. At the risk of sounding like a well-actually, let's clarify a few things:
- The Commissioner of the NBA, Adam Silver, is the acting representative of the NBA Governors (owners). He is their mouthpiece in negotiations with the unions. In short, Silver works for the NBA Governors, meaning all 30 of them are his bosses. Imagine having 30 people you have to answer to daily.
That said, the claim that Adam Silver/the league doesn't support or help small market teams is 100% objectively incorrect. That is literally the Commissioner's primarily responsibility because he answers to them, not the other way around. Even when Silver fines a team Governor for saying some dumb **** in public (e.g. any number of Mark Cuban's comments about 🤷♀️), he's technically fining them on behalf of the other Governors based on rules all 30 of them agreed on. He decides on the monetary amount though I believe there's a ceiling (I think it's $2.5 million). - The Commissioner of the NBA has very little actual authority. All rule changes, including what is proposed in the CBA, requires approval from an over 2/3 majority, currently a minimum of 21 teams. Mathematically, that also means several large market teams have voted against their own self-interest on countless occasions for the benefit of the league (i.e. a lockout helps no one).
- What the Commissioner of the NBA actually mostly does is draft proposals that he presents to sub-committees of the teams until the proposals eventually reach the team Governor who have final say. In CBA negotiations, for example, the Commissioner speaks directly to the NBPA Executive Director and President then takes that back to the governors and advises them to accept A and B, reject C and D, counter with E and F etc. etc. Here's the kicker: the Governors don't have to listen to him. Like, at all. In those instances, Silver kind of just hopes he has the votes to not deal with that ****.
I'm a firm believer in the NBA Draft being rigged, and I think both times New Orleans got the #1 pick, there was a concerted effort to get a star to New Orleans to keep a team there for reasons.
I respectfully disagree. The drawing process of the lottery machine with the ping pong balls in the NBA draft is very transparent. Last year notwithstanding due to the pandemic, league officials, representatives from each team, several members of the media, and members of accounting firm Ernst and Young are physically in attendance for the drawing. To believe the draft is rigged, you'd also have to believe every single person in that room is in on this conspiracy. That doesn't track for several reasons. First and foremost, why would any team agree to give up the top pick to another team?
I think the NBA might have more leverage in TV negotiations than you give them credit for, and it's possible they're just not pushing to have certain matchups on prime time TV the way the could.
In what way? The league partners with the networks but doesn't have any authority over what the networks broadcast that isn't included in contracts. Also, those contracts are reviewed/approved by the teams themselves. There are likely stipulations on the kinds of advertisements the NBA allows networks to accept. That's neutral enough to not ruffle any feathers with team Governors. However, Adam Silver can't simply write in a stipulation to show more Timberwolves games without 29 other teams independently yelling "WTF is this, man?"
The basic problem with the current CBA is that it strongly empowers players to the extent that it's very difficult for small market teams to pay high talent players while keeping the rest of the team competitive in regards to the salary cap. Players can also just refuse to play and demand trades to big market teams now, as was recently the case with Anthony Davis and James Harden.
Okay, but you're aware that the team Governors have to sign off on the CBA, right? Again, 21 is the magic number, and there are more small/mid market teams than large market teams. New rules that help small market teams are introduced by, surprise, small market teams primarily as well as the Commissioner whose job it is to help them. Fans of struggling small market teams want to pass the buck on the league, but keep in mind, the league has very little authority and teams must approve everything. How is "the basic problem with the current CBA" anybody's fault but small market teams who have accepted the terms of the CBA in writing?
As for the bolded part, I'm tired of explaining to you why this is demonstrably false. Keep running with that narrative if it makes you feel better.
As for the Supermax contracts...they may have been intended to help small market teams, but they certainly have their issues.
Again, teams voted and signed off on this. That was their idea so back to the drawing board, I guess.
The league does not promote small market teams. Hell, it seems to barely even acknowledge them at times, as seen in this year's playoffs where the league had every team on TNT & ESPN for the first few games, and then small market teams got pushed onto NBA TV. There is an active push in the media for big name players on small market teams to abandon them for big market teams (especially so-called "Super Teams" like the current Nets), and the league does nothing to push against that or to prevent trades that will severely unbalance the league.
I don't think you understand how this works. I covered this above so I don't want to repeat myself.
As for the bolded part, THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE. Preventing trades is 100% completely outside of the Commissioner's/league's abilities. If Team A wants to make a **** trade with Team B, Silver cannot do anything unless one or both of them breaks any CBA rules (i.e. the salaries don't match). He can't even advise for/against it; he can't take sides because once again, he works for the Governors of both teams.
as for the low rating joke and Adam Silver... I think it was covered sufficiently already, but the league thrives on the TV contracts, and if the only team left (after tonight) that gets a national tv buy for regular ass games is the Nets, then the networks may be nervous about getting their money back in viewership which may affect the next round of negotiations... therefore Adam Silver must be sweating knowing that the golden ticket Lakers are out in the first round.... the Warriors got Play'd-out in the Play-in (as I'm sure wasn't expected*), the Knicks blipped into the wrong reality for a brief moment (and then snapped back out), the Clips about to join the Lakergirls in having no one to root for this off-season, and all that's left are the Nets.
Alright, so I didn't get the joke because the above overstates a lot of things and no offense, isn't entirely true. Adam Silver does care about ratings, revenue etc. because he's chief executive of the NBA. Is he sweating if small market teams make it to the NBA Finals? I can't imagine he is even a little bit.
First, the NBA is the second largest professional sports league in the United States, and it's been growing domestically and abroad. The league's standing and popularity is not worrisome. The current national television contract with ESPN, TNT, and ABC is for $2.7 billion per year. The previous contract was signed in 2007, notably after the lowest rated NBA Finals (Cavs vs. Spurs, two small market teams) and still saw a 22% increase per year ($765 million to $930 million). Obviously, everyone (league, teams, players etc.) wants the largest increase possible because that means raises across the board, but if a previous contract still increased in far less than ideal conditions, I don't think there's much to sweat about. Sound the alarm if all networks draw a line in the sand and firmly offer less than the current rate. How likely is that to happen though?
Second, the team Governors unanimously voted to appoint Adam Silver as Commissioner in 2014 then voted to retain him as Commissioner in 2018. If ratings dip because small market teams made it to the Finals, what argument would there be against retaining Silver in 2023? "Oh no, our teams succeeded!" His job is not in jeopardy. Again, not much to sweat about.
Third, it benefits everyone if small market teams succeed, and the uptick in fans would primarily start in those markets because they start seeing and hearing more about the teams locally. A frightening amount of fans like to perpetuate this narrative that the league/Commissioner doesn't care about small market teams when that couldn't be further from the truth. They can't admit that their team sucks, the people running the team suck, the (likely) billionaire who owns the team and treats it like a hobby instead of a business is too cheap to fucking fix anything or take responsibility for their failings, choosing instead to whine to the league/Commissioner to do something even though any proposal still has to go through the process of getting approved by the other teams. There is a wealth of widely available information but these fans are too ignorant to read any of it, like to pout about **** they don't understand yet won't educate themselves about, and will blatantly disregard facts when presented to them. And yes, I am aware that this was a colossal waste of my time.
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