Adam Silver
speaker
760 appearances
15 recordings
7 series
first heard Feb 2025
last heard 26 Jun
Adam Silver’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 12 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 10.
Appearances
You won't have to look at it. On the other hand, if you're someone in a state where it's illegal and you can bet on sports, you'll see a lot more information if that's what you want. So I think things will become much more customized over time.
That would be fun. I definitely could make some news with my answer to that one. I would say, so no, for the record, I haven't thought about that. But it is an interesting comparison. You know, I will say, just because you mentioned baseball, talking about rule changes, I'm a huge baseball fan, and I'm a big change, a big fan, I'm sorry, of the changes that they've made. Like, I think...
you know, the pitch clock, you know, slightly enlarging the bases to make stealing easier and stuff like that. Like I've looked at those things, you know, and we've talked about that at the league office and with our competition committee.
And when I think the most traditional in my mind of all sports, you know, the most resistant to change, the fact that they're making changes in that sport to keep up with the times, I'm not sure, you know, different basket heights and different arenas is the answer, but I think it just means we have to stay on our toes and be open-minded about potential changes.
A little bit. I don't know if they would describe it as hanging out, but I used to, when I first Gary Bettman still worked here before he went to the NHL. He worked for David Stern at the NBA. And we've stayed close over the years. Roger Goodell and I knew him well even before he became commissioner, when Paul Tagliabue was commissioner. And he's been great.
I remember the first thing when it was announced I was commissioner, Roger was actually one of the first people to reach out to me and said, anything I can share with you, anything that'd be helpful with you. So we're obviously competitors in certain ways, but I think we're all fellow travelers trying to help each other.
I think this notion that a rising tide raises all boats, that it's what's good for premium professional sports is good for all of us. Same with Rob Manfred. I think I became commissioner right before he did. And we've compared notes on a lot of issues over the years. Again, as I said, I'm a big baseball fan. He's invited me over the years to a bunch of different events that I've been to with him.
I've been to Yankee games here in New York with him. So, yeah, we all talk to each other. I mean, everybody's running around slightly different seasons. So we don't get to spend that much time together, but they're all great guys.
Well, I'm a Wizards fan, and we just sent Kuzma. No, believe it or not. And there's some confusion. People have yelled out to me for some reason in the last week or so when I've been at games that I should be vetoing that trade the way David Stern vetoed a trade back in the old days. And And there's always some confusion there.
David never vetoed a trade that when he was the acting owner of New Orleans and the commissioner at the time that he turned down a trade that was proposed to him by the general manager of the team. But no, I mean, the way we don't put a thumb on the scale, so to speak, that when a trade comes into the league office, what our sort of basketball and legal folks do is they
make sure that that trade works under the confines of the collective bargaining agreement, whatever rules are in place, and then it's up or down. It gets approved or not based on those rules. We don't get to weigh in on what we think the merits of the trade are or should be.
You know, honestly, and I promise, you know, look at the league right now, that two clearly smaller market teams, certainly Oklahoma City and Cleveland's a little bigger than Oklahoma City, but not one of the bigger markets in the league, are the two best records in the league right now. And I think it's great. You know, we've had six different champions over the last six years.
And, you know, this may sound obvious, but I want all our teams to do well and be competitive. And frankly, Dallas is a big market. And so, you know, was I surprised that he was traded from that standpoint? Yeah, I'm a fan and that the teams don't necessarily give the league inside information on those kinds of things. So that trade was, you know, it wasn't one that I saw coming.
And by the way, I love Luca. I've known him since the day he came into the league. He's obviously a great player. He's a great young man. And teams make these trades for reasons that in some cases only they know. They have inside information about a player. They're living with a player. They have a particular style they want to play. They have a vision for what that team should become.
And truly only time will tell. I mean, the one thing I'll say, having been with this league for a long time, like truly nothing is written. People who say they can predict the future generally can't. And we'll see. I'm sort of rooting for Dallas, and I'm rooting for the Lakers. I'm rooting for Anthony Davis to recover quickly and be the all-star we know he can be and stay healthy for a long time.
And I'm definitely rooting for Luka to demonstrate to the world what a great player he is in L.A.
You have your job and I have my job. Your job is to create trades. My job is to make sure they comply with league rules.
It is true. So I was practicing law in New York, just had only been a lawyer for a few years. and decided I wanted to do something different. I'm still happy I went to law school. It's been very helpful to me over the years. But I wrote David a letter. This is pre-internet, where you wrote letters and mailed them. And I actually was looking for advice.
It wasn't so much that I thought I wanted to work at the NBA. And I'm always telling young people this story because it's so different these days where you can go on the internet and find out all kinds of information about the NBA and what happens in the league office. And there's all these sites where they rate people's jobs.
And they talk about whether they think they're fairly compensated and all that. I was seeing none of that existed in those days. And so David was someone who had worked at a law firm in New York before he had made the transition. He came over to the NBA as the general counsel before he was the commissioner. But I wrote him a letter saying, I'm also a lawyer in New York.
Showing 681–700 of 760 · page 35 of 38
← Previous
Next →