{"id":1621,"date":"2019-04-03T17:28:08","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T21:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/?p=1621"},"modified":"2019-04-04T22:18:59","modified_gmt":"2019-04-05T02:18:59","slug":"adam-silver-the-gold-standard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/2019\/04\/03\/adam-silver-the-gold-standard\/","title":{"rendered":"Adam Silver: The Gold Standard"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New York City kid, Knicks fan, Duke graduate, David Stern\u2019s prodigy, NBA DC and COO, whatever you want to call him, Adam Silver has been as polarizing a Commissioner as the sporting world has ever seen. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is a misconception, however, to think that Silver\u2019s impact on the NBA began when he was named Commissioner in 2014. With previous law experience working in New York, Silver was instrumental in the negotiation of the previous three NBA collective bargaining agreements. An important member of the partnership with Turner Sports Broadcasting and the formulation of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/china.nba.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">NBA China<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Adam Silver had tremendous experience before taking on the most important role in world basketball. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just two months into his tenure though, Silver had to navigate through some terrible PR for the league. Owner of the Los Angeles Clippers Donald Sterling was all over the news after a racist private recording was made public. Simply, Sterling made it obvious that he did not want people of color coming to Clipper games. Silver was ready for his first real public act as commissioner, and he didn\u2019t hesitate.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Just four days after the recording was released, Silver unequivocally rebuked not only Donald Sterling\u2019s comments, but the man himself, banning him for life from the NBA and fining him the maximum possible amount the league allowed, $2.5 million. Alongside the ban and fine, Sterling was forced to sell the team in one of the strongest and most severe actions imposed by a Commissioner in American sports history.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vHCgmVikntw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silver\u2019s ability to take on controversial issues has only improved. In his first public statement after the Donald Sterling fiasco, Silver expressed in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/11\/14\/opinion\/nba-commissioner-adam-silver-legalize-sports-betting.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">New York Times Op-Ed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> piece his desire to \u201ctake a different approach\u201d to sports betting and gambling. He continued, saying \u201cI believe that sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated.\u201d In 2018, the NBA named MGM as their <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/chalk\/story\/_\/id\/24248120\/gambling-need-know-nba-sports-betting-partnership\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">exclusive betting partner<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now unafraid to inject himself into politicized issues, Silver took on North Carolina legislation and moved the All-Star Game out of Charlotte due to the controversial NCHB2 Bill. Otherwise known as the Public Facilities Privacy and Security Act, the Bill enforced gender-segregated bathrooms. Referred to by many as the most anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in the country, Silver took a stand, making the 2017 NBA All-Star Game the first American sporting event to be moved for political reasons since 1990. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whether you agree with his social decisions or not, the financial trajectory of the league under Silver has been unequivocally successful. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/hoopshype.com\/salaries\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Player salaries have skyrocketed<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Team valuations have gone from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/2018\/06\/27\/nba-commissioner-adam-silver-gets-5-year-extension\/36434751\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">$12 Billion to $60 Billion<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, a 500% increase. The league attendance record has been surpassed four years in a row. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Adam Silver\u2019s responsibility as Commissioner is not just NBA focused. Silver presides over <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/careers.nba.com\/executive\/adam-silver\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201c<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">a global sports and media business built around four professional sports leagues<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">.\u201dA key figure in the development of the WNBA and NBA Gatorade &#8220;G&#8221; League (formerly D League), Silver\u2019s focus today is on that \u201cfourth league\u201d, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/2kleague.nba.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2K League<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Silver\u2019s tenure is far from over. Given an extension until 2024, he will negotiate at least one more CBA, with the current agreement expiring after the 2023-2024 season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Adam Silver has had as successful a first five years as anyone in a high-ranking sports position, and if trends continue, Silver will lead the NBA into many more prosperous years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York City kid, Knicks fan, Duke graduate, David Stern\u2019s prodigy, NBA DC and COO, whatever you want to call him, Adam Silver has been as polarizing a Commissioner as the sporting world has ever seen. It is a misconception, however, to think that Silver\u2019s impact on the NBA began when he was named Commissioner&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4218,"featured_media":1627,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,276],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-symposium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1621"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1625,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1621\/revisions\/1625"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}