At the heart of this endeavor is the close relationship Silver has with the president of the union, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Chris Paul. That partnership has developed over nearly 15 years of working on varying levels of projects behind the scenes. Silver, Paul and union executive director Michele Roberts put together a tiring but relatively peaceful CBA extension after months of talks in 2016. In a signature moment for both, Paul won concessions for superstar players — clearly a goal — and Silver avoided a work stoppage. Considering two of the previous three CBAs put together by previous commissioner David Stern involved lockouts, this was not a minor feat.