Adam Silver, the NBA’s commissioner, held his annual mid-season ‘state of the NBA’ press conference on Saturday night. Silver talked about many things, including the Ben Simmons-James Harden trade saga, differences in larger and smaller markets, international play, and the play-in tournament.
When Silver was asked about a potential investigation on James Harden forcing his way to Philadelphia, he said that there was no ongoing investigation:
“I think, in this case, you have two teams that seem satisfied with the outcome of the trade.. No team has logged a formal complaint.”
Continuing on the topic, Silver said that players forcing a trade is definitely a problem, but it isn’t a new issue to the league. He said that many of the greatest players in the past have done the same thing. Silver said that he has expressed his unhappiness with players forcing trades.
When asked about differences in competition for smaller market teams compared to larger market teams, he expressed his confidence in how the league is doing:
“I think we are doing much better than we did historically. Ideally, it will become less important what the actual size of the market is.”
Silver said that around the league, it is not as much of an issue as it was previously:
“I don’t hear that discussion as much where the league is divided in large markets and small markets.”
Silver was asked about the NBA getting back to international play. He said that he looks forward to the league getting back to games internationally, as it helps expand the game:
“We are looking at preseason international travel… It probably won’t happen for regular season games, we can look for preseason games.”
Silver went on and said that Europe is a very important place to the NBA and they are excited to get back there.
He was also asked about the leagues popular play-in tournament, which peaked at 5.619 million viewers last year in the Lakers vs Warriors play-in game.
The commissioner said that the league is extraordinarily pleased with the way the play-in tournament enhanced competition in the final weeks of the regular season:
“I didn’t realize that the last month of the season would potentially be enhanced. Last season we had 24 teams still competing to get in with 2 weeks to go, which is a record.”
The competition in the final weeks of the season helped boost the NBA’s viewership in those final games.
Silver told the media that since the play-in has done so well, the league will look at other options:
“We are confident in trying new things, including an in-season tournament.”
A play-in tournament would include some sort of incentive-based prize, such as a pool of money for the players or an advantage in the draft or potential playoff position.
