Adam Silver on NBA's parity: 'Competition is great for the league'

Prior to Game 1 of the 2023 NBA Finals in Denver, NBAcommissioner Adam Silveraddressed the media and discussed a wide variety of topics. Thefirst question he was asked was about the NBA's increased paritythis season.

In past years, a certain NBA Finals match-up has seemedinevitable (like when the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden StateWarriors faced off four years in a row). This season, that wasn'tthe case.

Entering the 2023 NBA Playoffs, there were quite a few teamsthat were considered legitimate contenders. Then, the eighth-seededMiami Heat emerged from the Play-In Tournament and made an NBAFinals run, serving as a great example of the league'sparity.

"I like to think every team in this league has a shot to competefor a championship," Silver told reporters. "We saw this season inparticular, it was a record with roughly just a little over a weekleft in the season, you had 26 teams still competing for theplayoffs. ... I think there's enormous benefit [to parity andunpredictability]. I get the question asked too, sort of theconverse of that question is: are dynasties good for the league? Myultimate view is competition is great for the league, and if as aresult dynasties are made, I think that's great too. So, I'm notagainst seeing repeat championships.

"On the other hand, whoever wins this year it'll be the fifthconsecutive year where we have a new team winning a championship.When you think about a 30-team league, and it's not just the fansin those markets but fans increasingly all over the world whofollow a team in that particular market maybe because they have anaffinity for that style of play or a particular player on that teamor some created connection to that city, you want a league whereeveryone feels that if the team that they are rooting for iswell-managed and gets a little bit lucky too – that's necessary –that they can truly compete for championships.

"I think this increased parity we're seeing around the league isfantastic. It's part by design too. Through successive CollectiveBargaining Agreements and the one we just negotiated, there's somenew provisions in that one as well that we hope will help even theplaying field to a certain extent. It's important to point out aswell that we only can make those changes with the partnership andcooperation of the players. We sit down with them. In a way,they're not that different than fans. You have the greatest playersin the world coming together on 30 different teams. They want tocompete too. At the end of the day, they want a level playingfield.

"They, of course, also want the opportunity to become freeagents and the opportunity to potentially move to a differentmarket depending on the circumstances. But we both have the sameinterest at the end of the day. ... It's changes in the CBA [thatled to increased parity], which I think have been effective to acertain degree, but also there's societal changes because of socialmedia and the amount of distribution that in terms of players beingable to get the recognition, I think it's less important as it wasin the old days to be in particular markets.

"We're seeing that; Nikola Jokic, clearly a global superstar,two-time MVP playing here in Denver. And because of the successMiami has had, sometimes people think of it, frankly, as a largermarket than it actually is. I'm pleased with it. I recognize thatthere's a bit of randomness to it too, but we're seeing a really, Ithink, positive trend line in terms of competition."