It’s just six days and counting until Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game at Chase Center and just a few before all the big names arrive and the parties start to really get going.
So late last week was a good time for a phone interview with commissioner Adam Silver, who has spent a lot of time in the Bay Area (six Warriors Finals appearances will do that) and has some very specific favorite San Francisco places.
I started by asking about the trades that sent Luka Doncic to the Lakers and Jimmy Butler to the Warriors and finished by talking about why Silver sought Stephen Curry’s input on changing the All-Star format (four separate teams playing shorter games, in a tournament-like approach).
Here’s our conversation, which has been edited lightly for length and clarity.
Tim Kawakami: We just went through these wild few days at the trade deadline. You’re the commissioner, so how did you follow all this? On social media like a fan?
Adam Silver: I think none of the teams trust me to give me inside information [laughs], so I followed along on social media just like fans do. And I follow, of course, with great interest.
There’s no doubt that the trade deadline generated outsized interest on the internet, on social media, on legacy media well beyond NBA circles. On one hand, I think it’s a fascinating dynamic that speaks to the popularity of NBA players. I’m, of course, empathetic to players whose names are being tossed around as possible players to be traded, and sympathetic to players whose lives might be upended by being traded. But that’s also part of the deal in professional sports.
What was fascinating to me is that every time we enter into a new collective bargaining agreement, there are always unintended consequences. And as you know, many longtime followers of the NBA predicted that we would have a dramatically subdued trade deadline based on the provisions of this new CBA. Of course, it was the opposite.
You could argue the amount of player movement also speaks to the number of teams that think that they have a legitimate shot at a championship and are one player away.
Is it good for the league to have that much trade action?
I think it is good for the league. I think player movement is healthy. It allows players to be extricated from situations that may not suit their game or their like or their preference. And same for teams. It allows teams to rebuild, teams to move in different directions, teams to recalibrate their roster. And I ultimately think that’s good for fans as well. Because ultimately, the more competitive teams we have in the league the better off we are. And it means that your fans in every market, and fans who support teams in markets regardless of location, can believe that rather than being locked into a situation there’s an opportunity to make changes and change the direction of the franchise.
Luka Doncic ends up with the Lakers. Jimmy Butler with the Warriors. Two very high-profile teams. I’ll ask: Is it good to get stars to those two teams specifically?
I think it’s great to have stars on every team. Genuinely. I think in the league, we’ve seen a dramatic change in the last decade. It’s become much less important where a player’s located, based on the rise of digital and social media. I’ve said that many times. I think there’s now a global market of interest for NBA players. I think most NBA players, they ultimately will have success based on the quality of the team they play with, the quality of the franchise, rather than its geographic location.
Look no further than [Doncic]: I’m sympathetic to Luka, to the extent he didn’t want to be traded. But I think we’re all used to a player showing up at a Laker press conference saying, “This is the greatest thing that ever happened to me.” I think it indicates of Luka that he was being genuine. I haven’t talked directly to him, but I accept at face value his saying, “I was shocked, and I would’ve preferred to stay in Dallas.”
And as I said, that’s part of the bargain in the league in return for guaranteed money and long-term contracts, that players can be traded based on the provisions in the CBA. But I also recognize from the players’ standpoint, some of them want to move, some don’t want to move. And I think that just makes the point, that he wasn’t just automatically saying, “I’m in a better situation because I’m now in L.A. as opposed to Dallas.” He loved Dallas. Based on his comments, he continues to love that community.
I know you’re a New York guy, but you’ve been to San Francisco more than a few times. What do you like best about this city?
I’ll start by saying that one of the benefits of my job is that I get to travel everywhere. And there’s no doubt that San Francisco is one of the most unique and most beautiful cities in the world. It has so many different cultures. Unparalleled innovation comes from your market. It’s a vibrant community.
My family and I love, while we’re there, in addition to, of course, attending basketball games, we’ve had the opportunity on multiple occasions to go to the San Francisco MOMA. By the way, there’s this great “Get in the Game” exhibition that’s there now, about sports, art, and culture. We’ve been to the de Young Museum several times. My daughters love the aquarium. We love walking along the beach. So it’s an absolutely spectacular city.
And on top of that, Mayor [Daniel] Lurie, I know he’s a huge sports fan. He’s a big supporter of what sports can do in terms of driving local jobs, spurring local business, uplifting people, and bringing communities together. It’s fun to watch how sports is operating as an epicenter of the community in San Francisco, or the Bay Area, right now. You’ve got within a 16-month span our All-Star Game, of course, the Super Bowl next year, and a FIFA World Cup (the last two both at Levi’s Stadium). There aren’t many markets in the world that can command that level of big-event interest over a short period of time.
Obviously, San Francisco’s reputation from the outside is mixed, at best. We all love Charles Barkley, but he’s become a flashpoint with his criticism of this city. How can the All-Star Weekend maybe push against that reputation or showcase other points about San Francisco?
I have no doubt that San Francisco and the Bay Area will demonstrate to Charles that his impressions about the city are flat-out wrong.
I can’t help but notice that you are staging several events next week in Oakland. How important was it to the league to include Oakland — which the Warriors insisted they were still invested in after leaving, and the Valkyries are based there — in this week?
I view the whole Bay Area as the home of the Warriors. I know from conversations with Joe Lacob, Peter Guber, and Steph Curry, and for that matter, the entire Warriors organization that they feel the same way. Oakland remains part and parcel of the Warriors’ brand and, as a result, we’re using multiple venues for All-Star in Oakland. The All-Star Celebrity Game, the All-Star practice, and our HBCU Classic will all take place at the Oakland Arena. And we have a series of community events towards the later part of the week and through the weekend.
I can’t emphasize enough that from the moment the bid came in to host All-Star in the Bay Area how important that was to the Warriors organization.
The last local All-Star Game was in 2000, with a very different Warriors situation. Now, they’ve won championships recently, and I’ve written a lot about how much revenue they’re bringing in. Obviously, they have Steph. How would you sum up what the Warriors mean to the league?
The Warriors have defined excellence in the modern era of the league. To win four championships in eight years, make six Finals appearances in that span, is nothing short of remarkable.
And Steph has been at the forefront of the evolution and global growth of NBA basketball. Fans everywhere love to watch him play. We saw that again in the Olympics in Paris. He’s amazingly relatable to fans, not just in terms of his size, but the joy he brings to the court. I think the fact that his game isn’t based on physical dominance but rather extraordinary skill has opened the game up to people who may not have felt it was as relatable. I also think there’s a direct correlation to what Steph has done on the court and the rise of the women’s game. I think, you know, the below-the-rim game and the beauty of it. It’s brought a lot of boys and girls to the court.
Wait, I thought the 3-point shot is ruining the league?
[Laughs.] Certainly not when Steph Curry shoots a 3-pointer.
It was clear the league was hoping for a Steph, Klay Thompson, Sabrina Ionescu, Caitlin Clark team shootout next week. Are you disappointed that it’s not happening? And do you know what you’re going to do with something like that next weekend?
It’s not clear yet what we’re going to have on the weekend. I can only say in terms of Caitlin, I was not disappointed the slightest [that she declined and said she wanted to save her debut for the WNBA All-Star 3-Point Contest]. Because, of course, we’re the league of the NBA and the WNBA. She did not participate in the 3-Point Contest in the WNBA All-Star Game last year, so I was thrilled when she said, “I’m going to make my debut at the Indiana All-Star Game in the WNBA 3-Point Contest.” So it made perfect sense to me. I think we have to divvy up the spoils among our many leagues. And the fact that she’s going to showcase her talents in Indianapolis, I think, is just fantastic. We’re still working through some issues for next weekend in terms of what we will do as sort of an encore to Steph and Sabrina from last year.
Steph told me that he wasn’t planning to redo the format of the All-Star Game but that you brought it up when he dropped in on your office last offseason. What was your main concern and line of thinking, and why go to Steph directly on changing things up?
I think we know we have to partner with the players on the All-Star Game. We recognize you can’t turn the clock back. All-Star’s been reimagined in every major league sport at this point. And I wanted to take the opportunity of Steph stopping by to say, “What’s the format that you would like to see that you think other All-Star players would like to see to create more of an entertaining and competitive game for the fans?”
And he said from his standpoint that maybe breaking up the game a bit, shorter games, multiple games, he thought was certainly of interest to him and he thought would be of interest to other players as well. So we spoke to Steph, we spoke to many other perennial All-Stars, worked directly with Andre Iguodala at the Players Association, and came up with a format that I’m very hopeful will work.
You’ve expressed your disappointment very bluntly about the low competitive level at recent games. Would you be disappointed if the level does not go way up in this game?
Yes. [Very small chuckle.]