YouSaid · the spoken record

Adam Silver

lines on the record: 25
first: 2019-09-20
most recent: 2019-09-20
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Absolutely. Watches, and that's why I got to make sure that WMBA prospers. My wife is tall, I'm tall, she watches basketball games with me, and I may get some tips from our other coach Kay here in the audience. And I would love to coach her one day. She loves the game.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And this is what they did, and this is how they grew up. And I think social media as a complement to the traditional media, which is really helpful too, allows them to show who they really are. And I think it helps to engage fans in our game.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't certainly don't encourage them to be controversial. I encourage them to be genuine and earnest about their views, and I make sure that they know that within certain boundaries, frankly, I mean, I think there's still more around issues of decency, not particularly political speech, but I want them to know that they should feel safe, frankly, as NBA players. I ultimately think it's in our business interest to demonstrate to our fans in the greater community these are multidimensional people, that earlier on in my career at the NBA, I think when we had the biggest issues as a league, and this was before there was that opportunity with social media for players to have that ability to show who they are directly to fans, they were portrayed in many cases as being one-dimensional people. They were just sort of just ball players and people didn't understand where they were from and what they did and what their other interests were, or if they were from other countries, they were just from China. There was no sense. Well, it's a big place.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it Nothing necessarily so unique to me. I was willing to work very hard and I did work very hard over the years. I certainly love the sport of basketball. I think that much of my job now is spent on media. It's the primary revenue source for the NBA. So the fact that I developed an expertise in media over the years was very important. I'd say I think while certainly being a lawyer isn't a prerequisite to being an MBA commissioner no different than being a lawyer, obviously in your job, but I think you and I would say the same thing. I think you'd say the same thing having gone to law school, learning those skills has been very beneficial. Large part of my job is being a professional negotiator, whether it's collective bargaining, whether it's commercial relationships that we enter into. So I think it was all of those skills.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Never, never, never. And again, I was being commissioner of the MBA is my sixth job at the MBA. And so for five of those jobs, I worked directly for David. And he gave me enormous opportunities. He's a brilliant guy. I ended up running an entity called MBA Entertainment. I was interested in the media business, sort of the television and media, and then became the internet arm of the NBA. Many years later, I became the deputy commissioner of the MBA. But ultimately, David could recommend me, but it required the team owners voting me. That's how the commissioner is determined. And he sort of set his own timeline for when he was going to step down. And I think also I was very fortunate that the league was in great shape at that moment. I assume there could have been a scenario where things weren't going so well. They might have looked outside the NBA, but again, I owe a lot to David, and I was very fortunate to be in that job.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Transitioning from law into a medium at the time having written the letter not even thinking about working at the MBA or understanding that this was something I could do at the MBA. Make a long story short. He gave me... You know, this is pre email. I wrote him a letter, an old fashioned letter. His assistant called me a few weeks later, said he can see you on whatever date. I went over, I met with him for a half hour, he gave me some advice, which I didn't follow. And then about a month later, he called me and said, What are you up to? And he said, I have an idea. And after a series of meetings, he hired me as his assistant. And that was my first job.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How did you do that? Honestly, I got incredibly lucky. I had worked at Cravath for about two years and decided that I was working at the time one of Cravat's big clients was Time Warner and I was working on a lot of media cases and at the time for HBO in particular and I became fascinated with the media business and while I was working on a particular litigation I was following what was happening in sports media and the move of sports to cable television really you know and it was Ted Turner in essence through TVS and then TNT who was leading that charge and David Stern then the commissioner was at the forefront of that movement and David Stern had worked at Proscow in New York which was the same law firm that my father had worked at and I didn't know David but I wrote him a letter and asked him if he could give me some advice about”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I definitely didn't, and I'm pretty sure that when even when I went to law school, if somebody had asked me what the NBA commissioner did, I would have said he hands out rings and sets the schedule. I wouldn't really have even understood the job.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A fee not off the profits because I don't want anyone to think in any way that we're incentivized for a particular team to win”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not the profits. I think our proposal is, I mean, it's been a bit controversial, but we've proposed that we receive something that I've called an integrity fee, and some people said, oh, that's a euphemism for you just getting a royalty. And I'm saying, all right, call it a royalty. You know, my view is this year, the NBA will spend roughly $8 billion creating the NBA. I mean, we'll generate around $9 billion and we spend about $8 billion. And my feeling is as the creators of the intellectual property. The organization in which the burden of regulation has been imposed on us by the states, I mean, again, the Supreme Court did what it did, and now states are doing what they're doing, legalizing sports betting. They are now imposing a set of requirements on us in terms of how they expect us to protect the integrity of the product. And so my view is we should get”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“When there's deviations that cause their computers to issue red flags and say something aberrational has happened here, when everything's illegal other than having, in essence, tipping services and relationships, we can't know those things. I think it's better that it be transparent, regulated, and controlled and authenticated. And this way, also, people are betting with their credit cards so you know who they are. And it's been not only legal in, obviously the state of Nevada for a long time, but for decades in Europe, and I've learned a lot from our counterpart soccer leagues because they've worked and lived in regulated betting frameworks for a long time, and they have much better controls than we do.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm always worried that we could have a scandal of any kind, certainly one involving sports betting. I think that we are better off with a regulated betting framework than keeping it all underground and illegal. And I know firsthand as the league that the Supreme Court decision has only been within the last year and now something like eight states have now legalized sports betting. Our preference would be that there would be a consistent federal framework because of your league and you're potentially dealing with 50 different states and all their different requirements. It becomes a huge burden for the business and it's also a bit of a race to the bottom among the states sometimes. From a regulatory standpoint, but putting that aside, in terms of our concern that like any public market, just if you think of Nasdaq or New York Stock Exchange, part of their ability to ferret out illegal activities from the algorithms that show”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The stigma historically has been suck it up, right? And you're not tough if you're dealing with something that's not physical. And where originally our junior basketball programs were literally just about basketball skills, like keep your elbow in and shoot this way, and this is how you play defense. And then we morph those programs into more about physical fitness in addition to basketball skills. And now in the last year, we've added a mental wellness component. It's been incredibly well received by people throughout the country, you know, who've because I know from the letters we get and from the mental health professionals we work with that kids are now coming in and saying, wow, this NBA player is able to raise their hand and say, I'm suffering, I need help, you know, regular kids feel comfortable doing that as well.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Socioeconomic groups, and what's changing though in our league, and again, I think this is wonderful that players are now willing to talk about these things. We had two high-profile players, Damar De Rosen, when he was still with the Raptors and Kevin Love on the Cleveland Cavaliers, who came out publicly and said they were suffering from depression and had issues with anxiety. And I know firsthand they weren't the first players in our league suffering with issues like those, but they were certainly the first players while they were current players in the NBA to talk about it. And I think, and I've heard from so many mental health professionals that when it really goes to the heart of your question, when people who are perceived as having everything, and then especially in something in professional sports where there's a certain machoism associated with it and a certain perceived toughness, and I think”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, in all seriousness, what I've said is that in talking about our players, I said they're no more immune from mental illness than any other sector of our society. And I think I'm sure people in this room know families firsthand that regardless of how much money you're making or your position in life or your family that in some cases it's chemical, in some cases environmental, but that it cuts across”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, absolutely. By the way, we have three female referees right now. And I think it's an area, frankly, where I've acknowledged that I'm not sure how it was that it remained so male dominated for so long because it's an area of the game where physically certainly there's no benefit to being a man as opposed to a woman when it comes to refereeing. And in fact, we're now in terms of the last group of referees that we hired into the league and they came from our development league is called our G league two of the last five officials that came in were women and the goal is going forward it should be roughly 50-50 of new officials entering the league.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So the steaks, it's hard, I think, if you were that parent or guardian to say to that player, it's more important that you go to three more classes as opposed to preparing for such a critically important decision. I think that's where the hypocrisy lies.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Want to say that's the case for all schools, but it's the case with many of those players. Understandably because The moment they fit, look, I think that's the whole hypocrisy in a way of the one and done program, those top players are being recruited by those schools as the best path to being a top draft pick in the NBA. So once they finish their collegiate career after one season, they are fully focused on preparing for the NBA draft. So whether or not they're still going to some classes. And remember, I mean, just to put it in context for a player coming in a top player coming into the NBA, let's say a top 10 pick that's going to come into next year's draft, given our pay scale now, and assuming the NBA continues to prosper, and assuming that player stays healthy and plays around where the expectations that player will play, that player Justin salary alone is going to make well over $200 million.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That need to be worked through between us and the player association. So it's something we're in active discussion with. A couple years away. It's a few years away. I think also if we were to make the change, I think the first season that would make sense to make that change for is 2022, in part because that's the current class that's just, in essence, finished their freshman year in high school. And the cohort is pretty well known. I mean, lots of these young men may move from 10th projected pick to third projected pick, but there aren't that many surprises in the cohort. And so if there was no longer an issue of eligibility, because remember now because of NCAA regulations, we can't be involved with that cohort of players right now. If the rule were to change, we and our players association, USA basketball, other groups, would work much more directly with those young players to prepare them for the NBA at 18.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Criminal proceedings around sort of college sports right now. And then in the middle of that, Mark Emirate, the head of the NCAA, appointed a commission that included what was chaired by Connollisa Rice to look at lots of issues involving college sports, but particularly to focus on the one and done situation. And ultimately, Condoleezza Rice in her commission recommended to the NBA and our Players Association that we return to the 18-year-old entry age. And I would say that that had a huge impact on me. That together with a better understanding of what is happening to these top players in that it's hard even to see it as a full year in many cases in college. Most of them leave once the tournament is over. I've changed my position to 18. The Players Association has historically been that it should be 18, but there are a bunch of issues.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's interesting. So when I first became commissioner five years ago, I announced that I thought the minimum age for entering the MBA should be 20 instead of 19. Roughly 11 years ago, we changed it from 18 to 19. And that has to be collectively bargained with our players association. So that's an area where I don't have the unilateral right to make a decision. I'd say then... Once I became commissioner. And became more aware of how the one and done situation actually worked in operation, sort of how the recruiting worked, then there's obviously been some very high profile”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't think, frankly, from his standpoint, he's an extraordinarily wealthy guy, and I don't think his reaction was, look how much money I just made. The team was worth that regardless of whether it was.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I mean, I think people may not realize it, but he's the only owner who's ever permanently been banned from a sport. It's difficult because I, in essence, work for the owners. I work for the owners collectively. I don't work for any one owner, but my job is to do what's in the best interest of the league. And as people here may remember that the tape that came out, the recording for which he was banned came out in the middle of the night LA time. So I was in New York, so I didn't hear it until Saturday morning. And he was banned on Tuesday. So, I mean, he received NBA style due process, but I think in most walks of life, people, you know, to think that from beginning to end that was four days is remarkable.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, they were happy And since Steve bought the Clippers, two teams have sold for more than he paid, the Houston Rockets and the Brooklyn Nets.”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think part of the reason is that it's been an Olympic sport since the 1930s. I think that's made a big difference in that it's a sport that has been played around the world. It was actually invented by Christian missionaries in James Naismith was a Christian missionary and the game was shortly after it was invented in Springfield, Massachusetts brought to China. And so it's been global since its earliest days. And I think when you think of the two most popular global sports, I don't think it's an accident that both involve round balls, one you kick and one you shoot, use your hands. And I think there's almost something evolutionary about it, about round balls. And I think most people, even if you're not a basketball player, whether it's balling up paper and shooting it into a garbage can or your little kid, I have a young daughter when she sees a ball, she kicks it or she...”
2019-09-20 · The David Rubenstein Show · Adam Silver · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source