Commissioner Adam Silver happy with success of In-Season Tournament, open to changes

Commissioner Adam Silver speaks on a wide range of topics ahead of the NBA In-Season Tournament Championship.

LAS VEGAS – With the presentation Saturday of two new trophies – the NBA Cup for the champions of the In-Season Tournament, as well as the one presented to the tournament’s Most Valuable Player – the absence of former commissioner David Stern’s name on any of the league’s hardware seemed a little more conspicuous.

It could be, though, that the Cup or some other trophy will bear Stern’s name in the near future, commissioner Adam Silver said.

“Absolutely, and frankly, long overdue to find additional ways to honor him,” Silver said at a news conference before the Pacers-Lakers title game at T-Mobile Arena.

“We are putting together a group here, I have assembled, to help the league office come up with the proper way to do that. So stay tuned.”

Naming trophies after the most legendary and pivotal people associated with a league long has been a special way of honoring them. The NFL has its Lombardi Trophy, recognizing the revered coach [Vince Lombardi] of the Green Bay Packers. The NHL has all sorts of former executives and even aristocrats – think Lord Stanley and Lady Byng – attached to its championship and individual awards.

The NBA yields to none of them, of course, with the Larry O’Brien Trophy won each June by its playoff champions. It also updated the names of its individual trophies as part of the 75th anniversary celebration in 2022. That’s how we got the Michael Jordan MVP trophy, the Wilt Chamberlain Rookie of the Year, the Hakeem Olajuwon Defensive Player, the George Mikan Most Improved Player and more.

The All-Star Game MVP and Finals MVP already had Kobe Bryant’s and Bill Russell’s names, respectively, attached to them.

But Stern should be a no-brainer. Serving 30 years from 1984 to 2014, Stern helped grow the NBA into a national and international powerhouse of popularity. The one-time delicatessen owner’s son was promoted from the NBA’s general counsel under O’Brien, then became the longest-tenured and arguably most effective commissioner among the four major North American sports.

Blessed with marquee players such as Jordan, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and LeBron James, Stern presided over expansion from 23 to 30 teams, the global growth of the sport and the introduction of the salary cap and drug testing.

Stern retired in February 2014 at age 71 and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame later that year. He died on Jan. 1, 2020, only weeks before Bryant.

Silver said there had been discussions soon after Stern’s passing that got tabled by the shock and challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. The Cup and MVP trophy for this tournament were considered, but some in the league hierarchy wondered whether those would be significant enough, commensurate to Stern’s impact and memory.

“There are some who felt that it wasn’t big enough. Maybe after the reception here…” Silver said. “We’ve been struggling a little bit because there’s plenty of things we can do to honor him. But I think everyone in the NBA community wants to make sure that they are sufficient to take into account the enormous amount he contributed to the game.”

Flipping O’Brien’s name to the tournament Cup and naming the postseason championship after Stern? The current name, even abbreviated as “the LOB,” has become part of the NBA vernacular.

Still, Stern held the post five times as long as O’Brien (1978-84). And there is precedent. Before getting Jordan’s name, the MVP trophy was named for long-ago commissioner Maurice Podoloff, who served from the NBA’s inception until 1963.

Now, the Podoloff Trophy is presented to the team with the regular season’s best record.

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Tweaking the In-Season Tournament for 2024

Silver refrained from making any public suggestions for ways in which the In-Season Tournament could be improved or changed. He even avoided the word “tweak.” The NBA clearly is happy with how it was received in Year 1 by constituents, from players to fans to sponsors. But Silver did touch on a few areas that will be reviewed.

He liked the colorful courts, though he felt they looked a little “cookie cutter.” The league might set a few general parameters and enlist the teams to flex more creativity, he said.Using overall point differential during group play as a tiebreaker for Knockout Round qualifying is a common tactic in international basketball and soccer. But it grated for some with the sports culture here, as far as “running up scores.”

“I’m not ready necessarily to move away from it,” the commissioner said, “but if ultimately there’s going to be a sense, particularly from our American fans, that somehow it is an indication of poor sportsmanship, that’s not a good idea for us to be doing it.”

Hearing star players talk about the prize money — $500,000 per player for the champions – for themselves but especially for teammates with more modest salaries confirmed for Silver that cash was a good, but not sole, motivator for the tourney. Winning, gaining experience and the location in Vegas also were factors.Scheduling, both for teams that advance in the bracket and for those that have new regular-season games dropped in their laps, will be studied anew. That affects the teams on the floor and off (travel, ticket sales), with season ticketholders scrambling as well.

Silver looked into the camera televising his remarks and asked viewers to send suggestions for the 2024 edition.

“Let’s get through today, everybody take a little bit of a breather and then come back and then get comments from everyone,” he said. “My sense is there’s no question there will be some changes for next year.”

Adam Silver discusses potential tweaks to NBA In-Season Tournament

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Questions on other hot topics facing the NBA

Silver fielded other questions on a wide range of topics, including:

Memphis star guard Ja Morant is nearing the end of his 25-game suspension (Dec. 19) and Silver said he would directly check in with Morant this week. There have been other checkpoints during his forced layoff for conduct detrimental to the league, imposed in June, with Morant required to comply with certain conditions. The league wants his return to be successful, Silver said.Any NBA assessment of allegations against Oklahoma City guard Josh Giddey would follow the current criminal investigation. Giddey, 21, has been accused of having a relationship with an underage female. The league historically has waited for the outcome of legal matters before weighing in.The ongoing rancor between veteran guard Chris Paul and referee Scott Foster that recently got enflamed publicly has Silver’s attention. He talked with Paul and said there are issues to be addressed. But the commissioner’s bottom line? “They are two people that I have enormous respect for, and they need to be professional about this,” he said.Silver did not go into details on negotiations but sounded encouraged about progress toward new contracts with TV rights partners. League execs are talking exclusively with Disney (ABC, ESPN) and Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT) before broadening possibilities to platforms such as Apple, Amazon Prime and others.

Said Silver of Disney and WBD: “The fact that they have been such strong partners, that they work well together, has enabled us to grow as much as we have over the last couple of decades. But we are also looking at global coverage as well.”

Monitoring players’ health and addressing “load management” issues head-on through the new Player Participation Policy are intended to provide the best on-court product for spectators and viewers. But credibility and transparency are also important in a gambling environment, Silver said.

“We want our fans, anyone who is engaging in sports betting, to believe it’s a level playing field,” he said. “And that to the extent there’s information to be disclosed, they have access to that information.”

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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.

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