Adam Silver reflects on Henry Kissinger's legacy in unexpected NBA interview / News - Basketnews.com

Adam Silver delves into the NBA's diplomatic soft power, drawing parallels to the late Henry Kissinger, highlighting the league's global outreach efforts, and emphasizing the unique role of sports, culture, and art in bridging diverse cultures and promoting values worldwide.

Credit: USA Today Sports – Scanpix Credit USA Today Sports – Scanpix

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver appeared on The Pat McAfee Show to discuss the NBA In-Season Tournament's finale. However, the conversation took an unexpected turn when Silver touched on the NBA's international outreach and "soft power" use in diplomacy.

In response to McAfee's inquiry about the NBA's diverse international player base, Silver delved into the league's expansion efforts in Asia, Africa, and beyond.

The executive emphasized the role of sports, culture, and art in fostering global connectivity and cited the late former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger as a model diplomat.

"I get pulled in, though not always in a positive way," Silver started. "I will say I was reading a lot of those long obituaries around Henry Kissinger's death at 100. And where he was sort of an exemplar of one of the great global diplomats, and I want to say I understand, and this is going to be far afield of your question, I, of course, believe we have to have a strong military. I'm a big believer.

"At the same time, call it soft power or call it diplomacy, through sport, through culture, through art, it brings connectivity together with people of diverse cultures and backgrounds. Basketball is one of those sports."

Silver then highlighted the broader impact of the NBA's global initiatives.

"I'm a sports executive, I'm not a diplomat," Silver continued. "But I think the things that we do around the world, participating in these national games, Olympic games, by taking our games globally, by bringing international players to the United States, by showcasing the very best, by people seeing the values of this game around the world, the principles, I call it like the rule of law … Sports teaches those values."

Silver also touched on the broader topic.

"This is an issue in the United States but really for the whole world," Silver said. "Even though we're seeing more prosperity in some of these places, we continue to see issues around childhood obesity, diabetes, and in many cases, it's because kids aren't active.

"So that's a separate issue. You need fun and engaging platforms like sports just to keep kids running and engaged and wanting to be outside and wanting to do things with physical coordination. Playing football, you name it. All of that becomes very important, and I think sports is very unique from that standpoint."

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