When the NBA season tips off its 75th season today, there are more than a few reasons commissioner Adam Silver should be breathing easy. The pandemic that led to an abbreviated season in 2020-21 and the even bigger disruptions that rocked 2019-20 are behind him, and the damage done to the league did not prove ruinous.If all goes well, the 2021-22 campaign should feel about as normal as the NBA can get, even with the sideshow of one of the...
NBA
Adam
Silver
Commissioner
Silver successfully led the NBA through two pandemic-altered seasons, crafting a spectator-less protective bubble for teams in Florida in the first and an abridged 72-game season in the second, and coming out of it with at least one likely permanent change to the schedule (the play-in tournament). Since succeeding David Stern as NBA commissioner in 2014, he has consistently pushed the league to innovate and expand, speaking out in favor of legalized sports betting and launching initiatives including NBA Africa, created in May 2021 to handle the league’s investments on the continent, including the new Basketball Africa League. For the last several years, he has been lobbying to shorten the schedule to 78 games and add a midseason tournament to the calendar.