INGLEWOOD, Calif. — Another year, another alteration to the NBA All-Star Game. Kevin Durant was asked about the new USA vs. the World format on Saturday during media day at the Intuit Dome and whether it would solve the league’s perceived problems with the event. He mostly shrugged it off.
Durant said he felt like “fans and the media need something to complain about.” KD wasn’t the only player who was pressed on the topic. Luka Dončić. Nikola Jokić. Anthony Edwards. They all got asked various versions of the question. Adam Silver wasn’t so lucky.
The commissioner spoke for roughly half an hour and didn’t get a single question about the All-Star festivities and having to tweak the proceedings yet again to try to juice fan interest and compel the players to actually compete. Most years, that would have been top of mind for the media and the commissioner. This is not most years for Silver or the NBA.
As Silver’s annual press conference predictably revealed, the league is facing any number of pressing issues that come complete with significant PR problems. Tanking. A star player partnering with a prediction market. The investigation into the alleged cap circumvention by the Clippers (who are hosting this weekend’s events in an all-time well this is awkward everyone just act normal situation.) When those are the main subjects things have gone sideways.
This is Silver’s 12th full season as commissioner. It is shaping up to be his most challenging, which is saying an awful lot considering one of the very first issues he was tasked with handling was hitting the eject button on former Clippers owner Donald Sterling, who was caught on tape making racist remarks.
Earlier this week, the NBA fined the Jazz $500,000 and the Pacers $100,000 for tanking measures that the league took umbrage with. On Saturday, Silver conceded that tanking has been part of the league for a long time and even allowed that it can create a certain amount of interest at times because “fans are rooting for their teams to be bad” in order to potentially improve their draft position. But he also said that it’s clear “the incentives are misaligned.”
“Are we seeing behavior that is worse this year than we’ve seen in recent memory?” Silver asked rhetorically. “Yes, in my view. Which is what led to those fines. And not just the fines, but my statement that we’re going to be looking more closely at the totality of all the circumstances this season in terms of teams’ behavior and very intentionally wanted teams to be on notice.”
The problem with figuring out how to punish or discourage tanking, as Silver admitted, is that “there’s a bit of a know it when you see it quality to this.” In other words, it’s subjective and the league has essentially announced that it will be operating in a gray area with regard to disciplinary measures on that front. “That,” Silver said, “is not necessarily a position we want to be in.”
There is no shortage of positions they would rather not be in these days. Holding All-Star weekend at the Inuit Dome while also looking at the Clippers for potential cap circumvention and tampering violations can’t be comfortable for anyone. Silver reminded the assembly that the league office is not directly leading the investigation and instead that responsibility has been taken over by an outside law firm. He said from everything he’s been told “the Clippers have been fully cooperative, but as I said I’m not involved in the day to day.” He called the matter “enormously complex” and added that he’s reached no conclusions yet.
The whole thing came off like Silver’s version of the This is Fine meme. He employed the same approach when asked about Giannis Antetokounmpo announcing he had joined the prediction market Kalshi as a shareholder. The commish said “it’s an issue that I’m paying enormous amount of attention to.” But he also downplayed Antetokounmpo’s involvement, noting that the league has a rule for sports betting where players can make small investments in gambling companies. That same rule now applies to prediction markets.
“That means their investment cannot amount to over one percent,” Silver explained. “In the case of Giannis, from what I understand, it’s a minuscule investment, much smaller than one percent. So that does not violate the rules.”
And yet, while not violating the rules, it’s obviously not a great look for the league — which is something Silver seemed to grasp as he tried to spin that topic into something closer to a net neutral for the NBA. “It concerns me,” Silver continued, “in the totality of all this betting that we need a better handle, no pun intended, on all the different activity that’s happening out there.”
Concerns over tanking. Concerns about the Clippers. Concerns about sports gambling and prediction markets. But they’re looking into all of it — or a law firm is in the case of the Clippers. And hey as far as prediction market investments and Giannis go, it’s a small thing. Nothing to worry about.
As damage control goes, I’m not sure how effective any of Silver’s efforts were. I sat through the entire press conference and read the transcript several times and mostly it came off as attempted deflection. As one reporter said to me afterward, Silver is really good at saying a lot of things without saying much at all.
Maybe that’s because all these issues swirling around the league don’t come with quick or clear fixes. I don’t envy him. But then no one said being in charge would be easy, either.
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