Tag: Adam Silver

NBA Ended Relationship with Basketball Academy in China, Says Mark Tatum —

David Zalubowski/Associated PressNBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum responded to Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s letter to Commissioner Adam Silver questioning why the league had a training center in Xinjiang, China, a region where the Chinese government is reportedly detaining around a million Muslim Uyghurs in concentration camp-like conditions. “The NBA has had no involvement with the…

NBA Ended Relationship with Basketball Academy in China, Says Mark Tatum —

David Zalubowski/Associated Press

NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum responded to Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s letter to Commissioner Adam Silver questioning why the league had a training center in Xinjiang, China, a region where the Chinese government is reportedly detaining around a million Muslim Uyghurs in concentration camp-like conditions. 

“The NBA has had no involvement with the Xinjiang basketball academy for more than a year, and the relationship has been terminated,” Tatum wrote in a response letter to Blackburn, per Ross Dellenger of SI.com. 

Blackburn released the following statement in response (h/t ESPN):

“China is responsible for some of the greatest human rights violations of our time. The NBA’s decision to abandon its footprint in Xinjiang, where millions of Muslim Uyghurs have been brutally confined in ‘reeducation camps,’ is the right way to condemn Chinese oppression and should motivate other American corporations to decry such atrocities. Making money and standing up for human rights should not be mutually exclusive.”

In the original letter, Blackburn also asked Silver about China Central Television banning NBA games after Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey expressed a message of public support for Hong Kong protesters in October, and the league’s relationship to Chinese state-run corporation Alibaba.

Brooklyn Nets governor Joseph Tsai is the founder and executive vice chairman of Alibaba. 

Tatum estimated in his response the television ban has cost the NBA “hundreds of millions” of dollars, per Dellenger, and that the league’s multi-year contract with Alibaba “primarily concerns the distribution of NBA content on Alibaba’s digital platforms in China.”

Blackburn expressed displeasure about the response in general and that Tatum—who asked all further inquiries to be directed to him, not Silver—was the one who responded:

“It is inconceivable and disrespectful for Commissioner Silver to sidestep an issue that requires real leadership. The reply from Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer Mark Tatum lacks the appropriate concern and responsibility that should accompany congressional correspondence. These technical answers do not address the larger questions about whether there is a conflict between their financial decisions and professed values.”

A number of Republicans have publicly targeted the NBA’s relationship with China, including Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz and President Donald Trump.

CSPAN @cspan

President Trump on NBA and China: “I thought it was pretty sad actually.” https://t.co/Y7AhigEfWe

There has been less consternation from prominent Republicans about the business ties and relationships other sporting leagues have with China such as the NFL, NHL and MLB, though the NBA’s financial foothold in China is greater. 

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‘Much Is Unpredictable.’ NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Can’t Guarantee NBA Restart as Coronavirus Cases Rise — BCNN1 WP

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise around the country, especially in states like Florida—home to two NBA franchises, and most crucially the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex that is slated to host the restart of the 2019-2020 NBA season—NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a TIME100 Talks discussion that there’s no guarantee the 22 […]

‘Much Is Unpredictable.’ NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Can’t Guarantee NBA Restart as Coronavirus Cases Rise — BCNN1 WP

As COVID-19 cases continue to rise around the country, especially in states like Florida—home to two NBA franchises, and most crucially the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex that is slated to host the restart of the 2019-2020 NBA season—NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a TIME100 Talks discussion that there’s no guarantee the 22 NBA teams who qualified for the relaunched season will even travel to Central Florida. Teams are tentatively scheduled to arrive in Orlando between July 7-9.

“[It’s] never ‘full steam no matter what,’” says Silver in a Talk that aired Tuesday. “One thing we’re learning about this virus is that much is unpredictable.”

Even if the teams make it to Orlando, Silver recently said that a “significant spread” of COVID-19 at the Disney World complex could cause a cancellation of the 2019-2020 campaign, even if it relaunches as expected in late July. The season initially came to a halt on March 11 after Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

But what would constitute a “significant spread?”

“Honestly … I’m not sure,” Silver says. “We have a panel of scientists, doctors, experts that are working with us. We’re going to see as we go.” The NBA, he says, will be constantly monitoring the data. “Certainly, if we have a lot of cases, we’re going to stop,” he says. “You cannot run from this virus. I am absolutely convinced that it will be safer on this campus than off this campus, because there aren’t many other situations I’m aware of where there’s mass testing of asymptomatic employees. So in some ways this is maybe a model for how other industries ultimately open.”

The NBA recently tested 302 players for COVID-19; 16 of those players were positive. “It’s not alarming based on what we’re seeing in the broader population,” says Silver. “In many ways, it was somewhat predictable. Where I’m most relieved … is that among those 16 positive tests, there are no severe cases.” On June 29, two Brooklyn Nets players, center DeAndre Jordan and guard Spencer Dinwiddie, tested positive; Jordan said he won’t be in Orlando, and Dinwoodie’s status is uncertain.

Health risks alone, players like Kyrie Irving have argued, shouldn’t cause the NBA to rethink its plans. A scrapped season could have afforded players more time to engage in social activism, a cause more pressing than ever following the killing of George Floyd and the subsequent national reckoning on racial justice. Silver, however, believes that with so many eyes attuned to the NBA during the restart, the players can use their platforms to do good. ESPN has reported that the NBA and its players union are planning to paint “Black Lives Matter” on the sidelines of the three arenas on the Orlando campus. The league is considering a change that would give players the option to replace the names on the back of their jerseys with social justice slogans.

Since the 1980s, the NBA has had a rule on its books calling for players to stand at attention during the national anthem. Given that so many athletes worldwide have knelt in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement before games as sports have returned from pandemic stoppages, expect NBA players to follow suit. “I don’t disagree with this notion that people come together in a unified way to stand for the national anthem,” says Silver. “I also recognize there are appropriate times for protest. And I also understand that when that line-drawing comes into play, invariably you’re going to upset some faction out there. And at the end of the day, we just sort of have to be true to ourselves, and the values that underly this league. And try to make values-based decisions rather than political ones.”

Silver has said he supports the efforts of NBA players to speak out. “These athletes want to be heard on these issues, understandably,” says Silver. “And we also, at least in the case of the NBA, have a league where roughly 75% of our players are Black. They are probably some of the most prominent Black people in the entire world. They don’t just park their skin color, or who they are, when they play basketball. They have their life experiences, and they want to bring those to bear.”

The NBA released its schedule for Orlando on Friday: Teams will play eight regular season, or “seeding” games, to determine which of the 22 teams will make the 16-team playoffs; their pre-shutdown win-loss records carry over. If the ninth-seeded team in a conference finishes within four-games of the eighth-seeded team, those two teams will participate in a play-in: the ninth seeded team will need to beat the eighth-seeded team in two straight games to qualify for the full playoffs.

Many fans and pundits picked up on the fact that the New Orleans Pelicans, who are currently 3.5 games behind the eighth-seeded Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference standings, have the easiest schedule, as measured by opponents’ winning percentage. Fans are clamoring for a tantalizing first-round playoff series between the Los Angeles Lakers, the current top seed in the West and a team featuring LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and the Pelicans, who have a shot at the eighth-seed and feature rookie sensation Zion Williamson. The NBA would seem to have an interest in a LeBron-Zion tilt too: many observers, understandably, are convinced that the Pelicans’ easy schedule is no accident.

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Source: Time

Adam Silver Says NBA Will Address National Anthem Kneeling ‘When It Presents Itself’ — NESN.com

Athletes have been vocal about the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, with some even participating in peaceful protests. The NBA is set to resume in exactly one month, and Jaylen Brown and LeBron James in particular have continued to fight against racial inequality and police brutality. But just because the games…

Adam Silver Says NBA Will Address National Anthem Kneeling ‘When It Presents Itself’ — NESN.com

Adam Silver Reveals Players Will Not Be In Breach Of Contract If They Skip Disney — NESN.com

Adam Silver won’t hold it against any player who doesn’t want to go to Walt Disney World Resort when the NBA season (hopefully) returns in July. The NBA commissioner spoke about a variety of topics Monday during ESPN’s “The Return of Sports” special, including players using their platform to bring more awareness to social injustice.…

Adam Silver Reveals Players Will Not Be In Breach Of Contract If They Skip Disney — NESN.com

NBA Rumors: Adam Silver, Michele Roberts To Hold Call With Players Friday — NESN.com

The NBA and the NBA Players Association apparently are looking to follow up with players as the league’s hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic enters Week 8. NBA commissioner Adam Silver and NBPA executive director Michele Roberts will hold a call for players at some point Friday, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelbourne. Players reportedly will…

NBA Rumors: Adam Silver, Michele Roberts To Hold Call With Players Friday — NESN.com

Adam Silver says NBA ‘not in a position to make decisions’ about resuming play as player salaries take a hit — Daily News

If there’s a way forward to returning to the court, the NBA will find it. The real question is when. Commissioner Adam Silver said on a Friday conference call that “everything is on the table” and “all rules are off” when it comes to the league’s return. There is no firm cutoff date when the…

Adam Silver says NBA ‘not in a position to make decisions’ about resuming play as player salaries take a hit — Daily News

NBA Rumors: Las Vegas Has Emerged As ‘Best Location’ If League Returns — NESN.com

We’re in the midst of unprecedented times. So, with the NBA doing everything it can to try to salvage its season, while still attempting to do so with a sense of normalcy, the league could look to a familiar location. CNBC’s Jabari Young reported last week the league could venture to Las Vegas and thus accomplish both.…

NBA Rumors: Las Vegas Has Emerged As ‘Best Location’ If League Returns — NESN.com
We’re in the midst of unprecedented times. So, with the NBA doing everything it can to try to salvage its season, while still attempting to do so with a sense of normalcy, the league could look to a familiar location.
CNBC’s Jabari Young reported the league could venture to Las Vegas and thus accomplish both. “According to NBA executives and agents who discussed the matter with CNBC on condition of anonymity, the league remains focused on a return after suspending operations following Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this month. Las Vegas has emerged as the best location to resume the season, according to league executives,”
Young wrote Thursday. Why Las Vegas? The NBA has held summer league tournaments on the campus of UNLV. Over the past two years, all 30 NBA teams have participated, which depicts how organizations have found ways to play at one central, and determined, location.
CNBC added how the decision could help the NBA “retain some of its revenue domestically and perhaps in China,” which The Washington Post reported could cost the league $1 billion. An NBA spokesperson told CNBC the league has “considered many scenarios,” but it is not close to unveiling a plan yet. NBA commissioner Adam Silver had previously said he’s ‘optimistic,’ but added that he didn’t have a good sense for how long it could be.

Read more at: https://nesn.com/2020/03/nba-rumors-las-vegas-has-emerged-as-best-location-if-league-returns/

Silver unsure about NBA’s next move but says ‘nothing is off the table’ — The Associated Press

Adam Silver said Saturday the NBA is considering all options — best-case, worst-case and many ideas in between — as it comes to grips with this new normal.

Silver unsure about NBA’s next move but says ‘nothing is off the table’ —

Tim Reynolds APMar 21, 2020 at 10:10pm ET.

Silver unsure about NBA’s next move but says ‘nothing is off the table’ —

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver finds himself almost constantly looking at financial numbers and projections. And like the rest of a world that is dealing with the seismic effects of the coronavirus pandemic, he still isn’t sure how bad things will get.

Silver said Saturday the league is considering all options — best-case, worst-case and countless ideas in between — as it tries to come to grips with this new normal. But definitive answers on any front are in short supply.

“It’s too soon to tell what the economic impact will be,” Silver said. “We’ve been analyzing multiple scenarios on a daily, if not hourly, basis and we’ll continue to review the financial implications. Obviously, it’s not a pretty picture but everyone, regardless of what industry they work in, is in the same boat.”

Saturday marked the 10th full day of the NBA’s shutdown, a stoppage that has cost the league 75 games and counting so far, a total that will reach triple digits on Wednesday and will eventually get to 259 on April 15 — the day the regular season was supposed to end. Play isn’t going to resume by then. The financial losses will be massive and will obviously just keep growing if this season cannot resume or if next season is affected.

“Adam is obviously cautious, cautiously optimistic,” Cleveland forward Kevin Love said earlier in the week. “We don’t know what the future holds but the NBA has been through a lot, we’ve seen a lot and I think we’ll be incredibly resilient. It just might take time.”

Players who are due to get their next paycheck on April 1 will get them. Whether those players will get their April 15 check is in some question; the league can exercise a clause in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that allows it to take back 1.08% of each player’s salary for each game missed in certain times — like war, or in this case, a pandemic.

That clause has not been exercised yet since, officially anyway, no game has been canceled.

“We’re exploring all options to resume our season if and when it is safe to do so,” Silver said. “Nothing is off the table.”

Besides, there are other bridges to cross first. The NBA — which was the first major U.S. pro league to say it would play games without fans and the first league to suspend its season once All-Star center Rudy Gobert of the Utah Jazz tested positive — has been extremely vocal in trying to get its massive fan base to take social distancing and other preventative measures seriously.

“Our focus right now is doing all that we can to support, engage and educate the general public in response to this pandemic,” Silver said. “We are also making sure that we are prepared to resume the season if and when it becomes safe for all concerned.”

The league has asked teams for building availability dates through the end of August, an indicator that this season — if it resumes — may stretch deep into the summer.

So far, there are 14 people within the NBA community, including at least 10 players, known to have tested positive for COVID-19. Of those positive tests, seven became known publicly on Thursday, and Marcus Smart of the Boston Celtics revealed that he has the virus.

“Unfortunately, based on everything we know, significantly more positive cases in our league were inevitable,” Silver said. “So, Thursday’s results did not come as a huge surprise and just like everyone else, we’re just trying to take each day as it comes.”

For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

Entering Saturday, there were about 19,000 known positive cases in the U.S. and more than 250 deaths blamed on the virus. Globally, there have been nearly 300,000 cases diagnosed so far with nearly 12,000 deaths. The virus first exploded in mainland China, where the NBA has offices and about 200 employees.

What workers in China went through helped the league quickly grasp some sort of understanding of the severity. Silver made the decision to shut down the league before any public health experts advised the NBA to take that step. He even sounded the alarm publicly in mid-February at NBA All-Star weekend in Chicago — saying then it was “a major national, if not global, health crisis” that was taking place.

“We’ve learned a lot from our China office,” Silver said, noting that meetings have been of the virtual variety there for several weeks now.

Silver’s sixth full season as commissioner of the NBA started with the league getting into a major rift with China. His mentor and NBA Commissioner emeritus David Stern died two months later. Kobe Bryant died in a helicopter crash less than a month after that.

Now he is dealing with the biggest crisis of them all — a pandemic, affecting and threatening virtually every corner of the planet.

“It’s been a challenging season,” Silver said. “For all of us.”

Adam Silver Says NBA Plays Big Role In Getting COVID-19 Message Out To Young People — NESN.com

https://youtube.com/watch?v=gow8AAc8oeU%3Ffeature%3Doembed

The NBA has been proactive in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis, and it wants it to stay that way. Eight NBA teams have been tested for COVID-19 since March 11, according to commissioner Adam Silver, with seven having tested positive as of Wednesday afternoon. Silver says most players are asymptomatic, though some are experiencing “relatively…

Adam Silver Says NBA Plays Big Role In Getting COVID-19 Message Out To Young People — NESN.com

NBA commissioner Adam Silver says ‘it’s possible’ season could be canceled — Press Telegram

The clock was ticking, but Adam Silver did not know how little time he had. The NBA commissioner had spent hours on Wednesday in meetings discussing the league’s handling of the coronavirus. Would they play games without fans? Would they put the league on hiatus? What was the latest from health experts? How did team…

NBA commissioner Adam Silver says ‘it’s possible’ season could be canceled — Press Telegram