Adam Silver Comments on State of League at NBA All-Star Game Press Conference
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver opened up about a variety of topics Saturday in his state of the league address during NBA All-Star Weekend.
NBA TV shared Silver's opening comments from the press conference:
ESPN.com's Marc Stein first reported in December the NBA's new collective bargaining agreement with the National Basketball Players Association would move up the start of the regular season by at least a week.
Silver told reporters Saturday an earlier opening night for the regular season will give players more rest throughout the course of the year, per the Associated Press' Brett Martel. As a result, they may be less inclined to voluntarily take nights off and miss games.
Also in regard to the CBA, Silver said the league and players' union remain in discussions about the NBA's age limit, per Turner Sports' Matt Winer. Turner Sports analyst David Aldridge reported the league wanted to raise the age limit to 20, while the union wished to create a rule similar to Major League Baseball's draft eligibility. Players would be free to enter the NBA after high school, but those who went to college would have to stay at least two years.
ESPN.com's Ohm Youngmisuk provided Silver's comments about the age limit:
"Well, first of all, we absolutely need the union in order to revisit the age. The current age minimum of 19 years old, but something [NBPA executive director Michele Roberts] and I discussed directly—and this is different than last time we negotiated a Collective Bargaining Agreement—is that rather than say to you that talk to us in seven years when we sit back down to negotiate a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, I think she and I both agree that it's the kind of issue that needs to be studied, in essence, outside of the bright lights of collective bargaining.
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Silver said the percentage of international players in the NBA jumped from 20 to 25 this year, per Earl K. Sneed of the Dallas Mavericks' official site, and Silver added that the number should continue to rise. USA Today's Jeff Zillgitt tweeted the league could soon see more than 30 percent of its players come from overseas.
Youngmisuk reported Saturday the NBA plans to have an exhibition event in Africa this summer. During his state of the league address, Silver identified the continent as an important part of the NBA's international expansion, courtesy of NBA TV:
Arguably no storyline from All-Star Weekend has been bigger than the reveal Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving believes Earth is flat. Irving stated his assertion with teammates Richard Jefferson and Channing Frye on their podcast, Road Trippin' with RJ & Channing (h/t ESPN.com).
Silver politely disagreed.
"Kyrie and I went to the same college," he said, per the Los Angeles Daily News' Mark Medina. "We may have taken different courses. Personally, I believe the world is round."
Silver waded into more serious issues, including President Donald Trump's executive order temporarily banning entry to the U.S. for people from seven countries in which Muslims make up a majority of the population.
"It goes against the fundamental values and the fundamental ingredients of what make for a great NBA," the commissioner said of the legislation, according to the Norman Transcript's Fred Katz.
The league announced Monday that Silver intervened in the ongoing feud between New York Knicks owner James Dolan and Charles Oakley after the team ejected Oakley from Madison Square Garden during a game earlier this month.
Silver met with Dolan and Oakley at the league's office, with Michael Jordan teleconferencing in. The commissioner told reporters Saturday that Dolan and Oakley have made little progress toward repairing their relationship, a fact that "disheartened" him, per Newsday's Al Iannazzone.
