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While Adam Silver focuses on game, he also works on getting new labor deal

Jeff Zillgitt
USA TODAY Sports
Adam Silver, commissioner of the National Basketball Association, gives his autograph to Los Angeles Clippers fans before a game at the Staples Center.

Adam Silver had his revelatory moment as commissioner of the NBA.

“Like Bill Clinton said it’s the economy stupid. It’s about the game stupid,” Silver told USA TODAY Sports’ NBA A to Z podcast. “Sometimes … maybe you start focusing too much on the business side of basketball.”

While partnerships – such as new ones with Nike, Pepsi, Verizon, Under Armour and Stance and renewals with State Farm and Anheuser-Busch – are necessities, Silver has concentrated on basketball since taking over for David Stern. Silver just had his two-year anniversary as commissioner on February 1.

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“In the last two years, I’ve spent a lot more time talking directly to general managers and talking about the game,” the 53-year-old Silver said.

He also meets with owners and players and travels regularly, which also includes hearing from fans who praise and critique the league.

“What I’m learning is how critically important it is that I get out of the office, that I not spend my time behind my desk and that I be out there hearing directly from our fans (and) our consumers in terms of what they think of the game (and) what changes they would make,” Silver said.

Silver listens, too. In the past year, he has:

  • Implemented a schedule that reduced the number of back-to-back games and four-games-in-five-days teams play in an attempt to make sure the league has the best product on the floor possible.
  • Tweaked the playoff format so that teams are seeded 1-8 in each conference regardless of division champions.
  • Added a full-time referee to assist in the replay center on a daily basis.
  • Began releasing Last Two Minute Reports detailing the correct and incorrect calls made and not made by referees in the final two minutes of close games.
  • Pushed for a reduction in Hack-A-Shaq instances.

Working on little sleep – he can’t always stay up for the finish of the West Coast games – and still finding time to attend Broadway shows (he loved Hamilton) and read important books (When Breath Becomes Air by Dr. Paul Kalanithi), Silver thrives in his role and has significant triumphs.

“I realize every day how fortunate I am to be in this position and how lucky I am that the league is in such great shape,” Silver said “... that I have such wonderful colleagues, and by colleagues I mean everyone from the owners of the teams, to the group many of whom you know that I have here in the league office with me, to the excellent team executives, and of course our players, who really are a fantastic group of young men.”

Silver presides over an exciting and popular time for the league, led by tremendous players, Golden State’s joyful style and unprecedented success, San Antonio’s steady brilliance and an increase in the competitive balance, especially in the Eastern Conference.

The parity is something he loves.

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“What we’re seeing now is that players are moving to markets that have cap room and players are moving to markets where they see opportunities to play,” Silver said. “It’s not a function of market size these days. It’s a function of the management of the team and the opportunity in that market. That’s what you want for a league.”

That doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement or potential for trouble ahead.

The lucrative nine-year TV deal with ESPN/ABC and Turner Sports will inject $2.66 billion into the league annually starting next season.

That money will result in a record jump in the salary cap – from $70 million this season to at least $89 million next season – and it has the potential to alter that competitive balance Silver and owners sought in the 2011 collective bargaining agreement.

This summer, several NBA teams will have considerable money to spend and the already loaded Warriors have the ability to add a top-10 free agent.

“It will be disruptive and having been around the league for a long time, I only know it’s going to be disruptive in ways that we can’t even predict,” Silver said. “It’s not the way we modeled the CBA going into the last collective-bargaining agreement. We thought we would have more regular increases from year to year (in the salary cap).

“You like to have a system where planning is rewarded and management is rewarded. Now, with all this unexpected cap room, teams that should not have had that kind of room (to spend) of course will have it.”

All that money sets the scene for the next collective-bargaining agreement between the NBA the National Basketball Players Association. Both sides can opt out of the 2011 CBA by Dec. 15, and Silver said "clearly we’re operating under the premise that if we can’t get a new deal negotiated by then, they are likely to opt out. That puts a lot of pressure on both sides to work over the next 10 months, which is a long time, to get an extension done."

Encouraging signs exist – even if there is a lockout – that regular-season games won’t be lost, as was the case in 2011. The two sides are meeting regularly, building relationships and trust. The league is dealing with new leadership on the union’s side: Michele Roberts, the NBPA executive director, has been on the job about 17 months and NBPA general counsel Gary Kohlman was hired at the start of the 2014-15 season.

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“My cause for optimism is based on to me the spirit of the discussions and the directness in which we’ve been dealing with each other,” Silver said.

That doesn’t mean negotiations will be easy. Both sides have pledged not to negotiate publicly but it’s not difficult to see where the divide might be: over money and the salary cap/luxury tax.

Players see the money coming to the league and might want a bigger split of basketball-related income (approximately 50%-50% right now). The NBA fought hard in the last negotiations to put restrictions on team spending that fosters competitive balance and may seek a model that ensures that.

How this will play out, nobody knows. For now, the majority of eyes are on the game. That, Silver says, is what’s important.

(Contributing: Sam Amick, AJ Neuharth-Keusch)

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