NBA commissioner Adam Silver held a press conference on Thursday, prior to game one of the NBA Finals. As he often does, Silver touched upon a number of important issues surrounding the league.
Firstly, Silver spoke about the controversial last-two minute reports given by the NBA to gauge the performance of officials late in close games. Despite some criticism that these reports are useless, the commissioner maintained that the reports are good for the league as they provide transparency and knowledge about the rules:
“The last two minute report we do to be as transparent as possible with the public in terms of how we think critical moments of the game are being officiated. We’re in the second year of our last two-minute reports and I still remain strongly behind them […] My view is that first of all in trems of building confidence in the public, they want to see consistency. So, they want to understand if we called something a foul, why we called something a foul […] and also whether our teams and our fans want to have a better understanding [of] how we see the game. That if we think something’s a block, are we consistent? And it gives them transparency into the media so they can judge us accordingly.”
Most importantly, Adam Silver spoke about the much-discussed North Carolina law discriminating against transgender people and how it affects the NBA’s operations there, regarding both the Charlotte Hornets and the 2017 All-Star Game:
“The discussions are ongoing. I was in North Carolina about two and a half weeks ago, spoke to a lot of business leaders in Charlotte working behind the scenes, frankly to craft some sort of compromise with the governmental leaders both in the city and the state. I would say there’s absolutely strong interest in trying to work something out that both sides of the issue recognize, however heartfelt their views that the current state of being is causing enormous economic damage to the state. I think they realize that we very much would like to play next year’s all-star game in North Carolina as I’ve said before.
We of course have a team in Charlotte, North Carolina so we as a league want to make sure there is an environment in which the LGBT community feels protected in North Carolina. At the same time, I think the bathroom issue frankly has become a little bit of a distraction, that from the very beginning that was not the core issue here. It was protection for the LGBT community in terms of economic rights, personal rights. […] I think if we can make progress there, we will see you all in Charlotte in February.”
Adam Silver did later make clear that the league is looking at alternatives right now in case no compromise is met and the NBA chooses to move the all-star game away from North Carolina, saying that they realistically would know the final decision some time this summer..
Finally, among the most important league issues discussed by the commissioner was the need for rule changes, especially as they pertain to the hack-a-Shaq rules. As fans, media, and even players and coaches have routinely criticized that the intentional fouling rule has not changed yet, this is a topical discussion. Silver, for his part, sounded like he very much understood the criticisms and would work to find a solution, especially as he mentions that intentional fouling has increased sixteen times over the past five years:
“I think you all know that it is my hope that we are not far away from some reform. This is an issue where I’m hoping we can strike some sort of compromise. […] I also recognize from a competitive standpoint, that largely three teams will be the beneficiary of a rule change. There are three players in particular and everyone knows who I’m talking about, and whatever team they’re on, and they’re going to play a lot of minutes, and they’re poor free throw shooters, the ability to hack them away from the ball, creates an advantage for the other team. What our analytics tell us is that it’s not as big of an advantage as some may think, but it’s an advantage.[…]
On one hand, of course I want guys to be able to make their free throws, but you see even among those three players […] something like two-thirds of their free throws still involve plays that would not be impacted by a rule change. So they still have every incentive to become better free throw shooters. […] Not only is [hack-a-Shaq] bad for our network partners, but all the fan research we have shows that the fans hate it. So there may be a compromise in there where we can cut it down significantly, but it still remains […] a disadvantage to those teams.”
Adam Silver also mentioned that the league is not looking to make rule changes due to the propensity of three pointers and that the league is looking to find solutions to the epidemic of flailing and flopping to get fouls, mentioning Draymond Green’s kick to Steven Adams as an example of the danger of allowing that to continue.
