Could Boston play a team based south of the border in the near-term future?
The last time the Boston Celtics played, broadcasters Mike Gorman and Brian Scalabrine got a surprise visit from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. In between talk of how that legendary pair might spice up their calls and early impressions of the league’s new in-season tournament, another topic came up that has been in the Association news cycle of late with the league’s NBA Mexico City Game having gone down the week prior.
That topic, NBA expansion, tends to pop up at the start of every season as the league lurches ever closer to adding new teams, and has been picking up speed recently due to one of the two major benchmarks Silver has outlined as needing completion before expansion (a new CBA) having been met as the other, a new media rights deal, remains in process.
And while the general consensus remains that Seattle and Las Vegas are top teams in the mix for new clubs, Canada and Mexico could be in the running as well, per Silver.
Looks like NBA Commissioner Adam Silver won’t be trading basketballs for golf balls.
Looks like NBA Commissioner Adam Silver won’t be trading basketballs for golf balls.
According to a report in the New York Times’s Deal Book, a prospective investor considering investing in the new commercial entity reached out to the longtime hoops executive about heading up the business venture from the PGA Tour-Saudi PIF framework agreement.
According to Deal Book reporter Lauren Hirsch, he “isn’t interested,” but wrote the move to explore his interest in the deal “reflects the size of the ambitions for the sports endeavor.”
“Media is a big part of these plans, as investors bet on the fervor of big broadcasters and tech companies for live programming to lift sports league valuations. The PGA Tour signed a nine-year TV agreement with CBS Sports, NBC Sports and ESPN in 2020, and industry executives expect the likes of Amazon, Apple and YouTube to compete for the next deal,” Hirsch wrote. “This was the context for the effort to recruit Silver, who has been praised for his handling of NBA streaming rights.”
The Tour held its final board meeting of the year on Monday. In a memo to players obtained by Golfweek, Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan addressed the bidding to be the Tour’s main private equity partner. “Additionally, as you know, the Framework Agreement with PIF and the DP World Tour generated unsolicited – although not surprising – interest from numerous outside potential investors. The opportunity to potentially participate in the transformative growth of the PGA Tour for the first time brought forth dozens of inbound prospects, which were all initially vetted by the Tour’s investment bank, Allen & Company,” he wrote. “In the Policy Board meeting, we reviewed these remaining bids with the Independent Directors and Player Directors – with input from Allen & Co. and The Raine Group – and agreed to continue the negotiation process in order to select the final minority investor(s) in a timely manner.”
The Framework Agreement has a Dec. 31 deadline to reach a definitive deal between the Tour and the PIF, but that date is widely expected to be pushed deep into 2024.
Silver also talks about the specific changes made to the All-Star Game, including returning to the traditional East vs. West format and addressing player concerns about the fanfare surrounding the event.
In an interview with former NBAer and current host of the “Old Man and the 3” podcast JJ Redick, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver discussed the importance of prioritizing the growth of basketball and spent some time talking about how the league can improve the All-Star Game in particular.
He mentions how everything positive that happens around the game benefits the NBA and emphasizes the need to focus on the quality of play on the court. Silver also talks about the specific changes made to the All-Star Game, including returning to the traditional East vs. West format and addressing player concerns about the fanfare surrounding the event. Silver believes that basketball should be the center of attention and that players should be able to go through their normal routines before games.
Take a look at the clip embedded below to hear their talk in full.
Adam Silver wants better NBA coverage and that’s going to be a good thing moving forward
Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes
What’s happening, folks. Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for reading today. We appreciate you.
I know a lot of you have probably watched the Adam Silver interview on JJ Redick’s Old Man and the Three podcast. If you haven’t, I recommend that you do. It’s a fantastic episode that Silver opens up on a ton about.
The most fascinating thing the two talked about to me, though, was the NBA’s media coverage. Particularly with the league searching for a new media rights deal soon. The NBA’s media deal expires at the end of the 2024-25 NBA season and it’d love to have something set in stone before then. To do that, the NBA has to be looked at as a strong media asset. Silver talked about doing his best to make sure that happens.
The thing that struck a chord with me was the way he talked about how the game was covered. He doesn’t like it — specifically when it comes to color commentary.
“Part of my job is to take people who are fans of the game … and by definition create interest in whoever the teams are that are most successful. I think where we can all do a better job, and again I’m not just pointing to the media here, is talking more about the game. My frustration a bit, I think sometimes the color commentary in our games gets reduced to, ‘this team wanted it more’ or ‘this team tried harder.’”
He’s tired of the simplistic “player X wanted it more than player Y” analysis. He wants more complex and sophisticated breakdowns for fans in games.
Honestly, initially hearing that I scoffed at it. Because I do think there’s value in the simplistic analysis. Sports are supposed to be fun, right? That’s the fun part. Who wants it more? It’s what some of the most incredible plays in NBA history come down to.
But Silver isn’t talking about that, though. I realized that after watching more of the video and getting more context.
For so long the NBA has had an issue marketing itself because it’s always been about one star or about one superteam. LeBron James. The Golden State Warriors. Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Shaq and Kobe.
Well, James is in the twilight of his career. So are his peers. There’s no one stepping into that void. Nikola Jokic doesn’t seem to want the spotlight. Giannis Antetokounmpo doesn’t seem to, either. There aren’t any superteams anymore. So what does the league attach itself to now?
Basketball. The answer is basketball. The quality of the games that are played on a nightly basis has been incredible. Teams are as competitive as they’ve ever been. Parity has truly taken over the league. The NBA can’t just market one star or one player anymore — it has to be many now. What Silver is describing here is his strategy for doing that.
I think it can work. I hope it does. The game is in a great place right now and I hope plenty of people get to enjoy it in the same way we all do here.
Plus, maybe we’ll have fewer casuals constantly trying to argue with us online about GOAT discussions in the future. That’s a plus, right?
NBA offenses are going wild
Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports
We have a new best offense ever — again. For what feels like the 100th season in a row, a team is set to break the NBA’s record for offensive efficiency.
The Indiana Pacers’ offensive rating of 121.5 is set to break the Sacramento Kings 119.4 record from *checks notes* last season. I would call this an outlier, but it just keeps happening. The Kings broke the record of the 2021 Nets who broke the record of the 2020 Mavericks who broke the record of the 2017 Golden State Warriors who broke…well, you get it by now.
The offense is just out of control in the NBA today. The sample size is small. But if you look at the top offensive ratings from around the league so far this season they’re shattering records left and right.
If this stands, six of the 10 best offensive teams in league history will come from this season. All of them won’t last, but some of them surely will.
Can we bring back hand checking or something? Sheesh, man. Give defenses a break, will you, NBA?
Jimmy Butler doesn’t care about your bets
Talking trash to Jimmy Butler probably isn’t the smartest thing in the world to do. Neither is talking to him about your bets, either. He’ll probably embarrass you, as the homie Blake Schuster points out here.
One better kindly asked Butler to please score 20 points for him so that he could pay his mortgage. Butler responded by telling him he paid his own mortgage. In cash.
"20 man, score for me… Make this 3 for real."
He was trying to get Jimmy Butler to score so he could cash his bet 😂
“Fan: Come on. Twenty, man. Score for me. Jimmy. I’ve got to pay my mortgage.
Butler: What? I paid mine. I bought my house cash.
Fan: Cash? Haha. Right here. Make this three. For real. I need this money.”
First of all, that’s got to be a wild interaction to watch in real time. The best part is how Butler just continuously tells the dude he won’t score for him and very clearly means it.
Second, buying your house in all cash is such a flex, man. Seriously. That’s wild.
Third, don’t ever talk trash with Jimmy Butler. It’s not going to go well for you.
Good for Charles Barkely to ask this important question.
UPDATE: The Athletic confirmed Barkley’s question to Silver was “on the spot and not scripted” during the broadcast.
Before the season officially tipped off, Inside the NBA spoke with NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Charles Barkley had an important question.
During the time that the team had with Silver before the Lakers played against the Nuggets in Denver, the former NBA big man asked Silver about one of the more troubling issues in the league.
Before they cut to a commercial break, Barkley asked Silver about domestic violence allegations against several active players in the league. Earlier this offseason, Silver had a concerning answer about why Hornets forward Miles Bridges got a shortened suspension for his domestic violence incident.
Charles Barkley confronts NBA commissioner Adam Silver after numerous offseason incidents of domestic violence among NBA athletes: pic.twitter.com/u0LjxLiLRd
“I got a serious question for you. There’s a couple disturbing incidents of domestic violence in the NBA right now. What are we doing to address that? … You can’t put your hands on women, man. … What are we, as a league, going to do about that?”
“That’s an area where we’re not looking to compete against other leagues. … Our players’ association, credit to them, this wasn’t adversarial. We put in place a new program for how we deal with, first of all, accusations of domestic violence even before they are prosecuted. Part of it goes to training of our players, counseling of our players to make sure they understand during high-stress situations, never resort to violence against anyone. We’re addressing. We have state of the art counseling professionals dealing with our players. But of course, if a guy does cross the line, the consequences are enormous.”
This answer likely didn’t go far enough to address this serious concern, nor does it align with recent suspensions and discplinary actions.
"If a guy does cross the line, the consequences are enormous" does not exactly match what the consequences have actually been. https://t.co/W8lr7DpUvh
Will NBA teams follow the new rules on resting star players?
Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Here’s Prince J. Grimes.
When Jaylen Brown signed his massive supermax extension in July, penning his name to the richest contract in NBA history, a popular sentiment across the interweb was that he didn’t deserve it. That the Boston Celtics were out of their minds for giving him that much money.
The truth those people were all missing, of course, was the Celtics paid Brown exactly what the market in 2023 dictated a player of his caliber was worth, as FTW’s Mike Sykes wrote at the time. And the the next supermax eligible player will get even more. That’s just how it goes. When the salary cap increases, so too do player salaries.
However, the thing that has allowed for those numbers to jump is NBA revenue also increasing, and it would be foolish for the league or its players to ever take those increases for granted. Which is exactly why the league’s board of governors voted Wednesday to approve tougher rules on resting star players.
Sykes broke down exactly how the new rules work here, and you should definitely check that out, but in a nutshell, the league is doing more to make sure star players are on the court more often. “As the league negotiates a new media rights deal, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been determined to increase player participation,” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski wrote in his report on the new rules. It’s an apparent about-face for Silver, who defended load management as recently as this year’s All-Star Weekend.
Woj didn’t specifically say the load management issue has come up in negotiations, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how that might have been something the NBA needed to address sooner or later. Load management has been a common gripe amongst fans for years, and in a media landscape proving more unpredictable in the era of streaming, it’s more important now than ever to listen to those fans — who also pay the price of tickets for the games. Especially as the current media rights deal is set to expire after the 2024-25 season.
That gets to the heart of why I don’t think we’ll see much pushback from players on the new rules. They want to see league revenue increase as much NBA headquarters, because it means their salaries continue to increase. And if this is part of what it takes for that to happen, then so be it.
Sure, we’ll still see the occasional fishy injury designations pop up. And we’ll all question those to no end. But I’m guessing most players will make an effort to get their rest within the confines of the new rules, and everyone will be more happy (and paid) for it.
Rings over Teams
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
Stacy Revere/Getty Images
As you can tell from everything above, our guy Sykes has been taking good care of y’all when it comes to NBA coverage this summer. So, it’s no surprise he was all over it when Giannis Antetokounmpo first made clear his ambitions to win a championship — no matter where — and said that should terrify Milwaukee Bucks fans.
So, I don’t mean to alarm those same Bucks fans, because you’ve heard this before, but, uhhh, y’all. Giannis just doubled down on those sentiments, and yikes! If you didn’t listen to Sykes before, you should probably be shaking in your boots now. I think it’s safe to say Milwaukee is rising up the list of teams with the most pressure to perform this season.
Antetokounmpo was a guest on Bleav’s 48 minutes podcast, and he made it very clear that while he’s a Milwaukee Buck today, he doesn’t necessarily have to be a Milwaukee Buck for life.
“I’m a Milwaukee Buck, but most importantly I’m a winner. … If there is a better situation for me to win the Larry O’Brien I have to take that better situation,” he said.
"I'm a Milwaukee Buck, but most importantly I'm a winner. … If there is a better situation for me to win the Larry O'Brien I have to take that better situation."
As a non-Bucks fan, I appreciate Antetokounmpo’s openness in talking about the things that matter most to him. This the type of response we don’t usually hear from superstar athletes. Whether it’s money, playing time, championships or whatever, players aren’t always open about their priorities, but this is one time where one of the world’s greatest NBA players is making it very clear he’s more loyal to his pursuit of titles than he is a single franchise.
We’ve always assumed that to be the case for some players — and we’ve seen the opposite of other players like Damian Lillard who have maybe been loyal to a fault — but we don’t always hear it. This may not be exactly what Bucks fans want to hear, but they absolutely have to respect it.
At least if Antetokounmpo does end up leaving, you can’t say he didn’t warn you. You also can’t blame him, because it sounds like if he leaves, it’ll be the fault of something the team didn’t do rather than a choice he wanted to make.
Because the NBA isn’t currently in season, the league office can take a bit more time in investigating the alleged Kevin Porter Jr. assault, according to Adam Silver.
Because the NBA isn’t in season, the league office can take more time investigating the alleged Kevin Porter Jr. assault.
Adam Silver, commissioner of the league, addressed the subject in a televised interview on ESPN. As part of the new collective bargaining agreement, the NBA has jurisdiction over individual teams in the matter of domestic violence allegations, meaning the Rockets can’t discipline Porter for the incident until the NBA rules first.
With 2023-24 training camps not opening until early October, there’s nothing to prompt an immediate decision regarding Porter’s availability.
Silver explained at Wednesday’s NBA Board of Governors press conference (partial transcript by Salman Ali, Red Nation Hoops):
The allegations here are horrific, no question about it. … But I don’t know anything more about the actual facts, other than reading those allegations.
We’re not in season. … We have a bit of time to decide whether it would be appropriate for him to go to training camp or not.
The timetable for a ruling is not clear. Porter is due to appear in a New York court on Oct. 16 in connection with the case.
[lawrence-related id=116528,116489]
“The allegations here are horrific, no question about it, but I don't know anything more about the actual facts other than reading those allegations.”
Adam Silver on allegations that Rockets guard Kevin Porter Jr. attacked girlfriend Kysre Gondrezick.pic.twitter.com/UeU5GDat7w
“Where you get picked has zero determination on how successful you are,” Rafael Stone tells @BigSargeSportz of Cam Whitmore’s slide. Stone says the #Rockets have no concerns over his health.
For a young athlete, being drafted into any professional league can be exciting and stressful, especially when he or she is expected to be a high-draft pick and has family and friends in attendance. There’s also most of the sports world watching on television.
Put yourself in their shoes. For months, you’ve likely read or heard numerous draft analysts speak of you as if no team can do without your talent on their team, and they should move mountains to make you one of the faces of their franchise for the next decade.
At the 2005 NFL draft, Aaron Rodgers heard all the chatter on how the San Francisco 49ers would make him their future quarterback. He arrived and sat in the green room, expecting to hear his name called expeditiously. It was not, and he sat in misery for hours before the Green Bay Packers selected him at No. 24.
“It’s not so funny when you’re the last one in the green room,” Rodgers would say about his experience.
In 2018, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson suffered the same fate. The Heisman Trophy winner out of Louisville sat with his mother, waiting to hear his name called as the cameras continuously panned to him after every name was called. It wasn’t until Baltimore traded back into the first round that Jackson’s fate was sealed. He was selected with the last pick of the night.
Cam Whitmore is too young to remember those two instances, but the experience he had on Thursday during the 2023 NBA draft strongly resembles what Rodgers and Jackson endured.
Whitmore, 18, was expected to be a lottery selection after a star-studded freshman season at Villanova, where he was named 2023 Big East Freshman of the Year. Some projected him to go as high as No. 4 to the Rockets and no lower than No. 8 to Washington.
He didn’t hear his name called at four. Then, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver didn’t say his name when it was time for the Wizards to pick. It wasn’t until Houston selected him at No. 20 that Whitmore could relax. He did for a brief moment until the reality hit that 17 teams had passed over him as part of the draft process.
That relaxation soon turned into motivation, which could be seen in his eyes during his numerous interviews with reporters. Whitmore was told his slide was due to concerns about his medicals, which he disputed when he was asked about it.
“No, I promise you there’s not,” Whitmore said when asked if he had any medical issues that would make NBA teams hesitant to draft him. “I don’t know what happened. But I feel fine.”
Rockets general manager Rafael Stone echoed Whitmore’s statement.
“We don’t,” Stone said when asked if Houston has any concerns over Whitmore’s health. “Cam took a physical in Chicago (at the draft combine), and every team had access to it; our doctors had access to it. We were very comfortable with it. I think he is well-positioned to have a really good career. We are really excited to have him.”
Stone also believes the draft-night slip will play a small part in Whitmore’s career, and it will be in the back of his mind when he takes the floor each game.
“I am sure it is a little bit of added motivation,” Stone told reporters during his post-draft press conference. “But today should not be a bad day for him, as his dream just came true. Even if it came true in a slightly different form than maybe he hoped or anticipated.”
“Where you get picked has zero determination on how successful you are. So now it is entirely on him to become the player I know he can be and that he knows he can be.”
If history repeats itself, perhaps Whitmore’s career will follow in the steps of Jackson, who was selected as the NFL’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) in 2019 and remains Baltimore’s starter. Or perhaps it can mirror Rodgers, who has four MVP trophies and a Super Bowl ring over a career that continues today with the New York Jets.
What the Rockets are getting in the 6-foot-7, 232-pound physical specimen is a player who now has a chip on his shoulder and will be more motivated to prove to everyone who passed him up.
“It motivates me to like 150 percent,” Whitmore told reporters after he was drafted. “It’s just something where I’ve got to rethink, go in the next day, new mind, free mind. Coming into that organization with a chip on my shoulder, have a lot of motivation on my mind.”
For some commissioners, some of it has to do with decisions they’ve made that have angered fans. Maybe that’s true of Silver too, but the more likely explanation is: It’s tradition for a commissioner to be booed at the draft! His predecessor, David Stern, used to lean into it, which was always a lot of fun:
And Silver got booed in 2022 after congratulating the Warriors on their title:
The NBA door is wide open for the Saudi Public Investment fund
Welcome to Layup Lines, our basketball newsletter where we’ll prep you for a tip-off of tonight’s action, from what to watch to bets to make. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every afternoon
Howdy, folks. Welcome back to Layup Lines. It’s Sykes. Let’s talk a little golf and basketball.
So now, what we’re left with is a PGA Tour that is firmly in the grip of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, just as LIV Golf once was. For fans of the sport, this can be a hard pill to swallow.
Yes, this public investment fund is there to diversify the country’s economy as the well runs dry on fossil fuels that have driven Saudi Arabia for so long. There’s obviously lots of money there to spend and many organizations will gladly take it.
NBA fans, if you’re uncomfortable with that, you’d better get used to it. Because it’s probably coming to your favorite league, too.
The NBA welcomes this. Last year, the league’s board of governors instated a rule change allowing sovereign wealth funds (looking at you, PIF) to buy up to a 20 percent stake in any team. The door is quite literally wide open.
Adam Silver is letting everyone know it, too. Silver was asked about the PGA Tour merger on the Dan Patrick Show and potential investment from the Saudi PIF coming to the NBA. Here’s what he had to say, via The Athletic.
“I hear the comments about sportswashing. On the other hand, you’re talking about it, others are talking about it. … In the same way the World Cup — the football World Cup, soccer World Cup — brought enormous attention to Qatar. I think people learn about these countries, learn about what’s happening in the world in ways they otherwise wouldn’t. So I think the media does its job.
“But … now talking specifically about the NBA, where we’re such a global sport, I think people are a little too dismissive these days about the benefits that come from the commonality around sports.”
The only word I can find that feels appropriate for these comments is disappointing. We obviously know this isn’t the case now, but Adam Silver had once built the NBA up as the progressive league in sports. When cash is involved? You can cast all that aside. So many moments have shown us that. This is certainly one of them.
But, here’s the thing. Can you blame him, though? By and large, this is the attitude that pretty much everyone is taking on. The NBA is obviously open to it. The PGA Tour just did it after saying it wouldn’t. The WNBA probably will someday, too. The WTA and the ATP probably will, too. Several organizations in soccer already have. And Uber. And Twitter. And lots of other companies that you probably love.
The message is this: Sure, it might feel a bit icky taking this check. But, y’all, do you see this check? The money is just far too much to pass up — morality be damned.
That’s sad. It’s gross. But it’s our reality. Unfortunately, sports fans, you should probably get used to it.
The Tip-Off
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
The Denver Nuggets caught all of us by surprise today by making a trade. Yes, you read that correctly. In the middle of the NBA Finals. Shouldn’t they be focused on pick-and-roll coverage or something?
“It matters because of the NBA’s new collective bargaining agreement. The league and the NBA Player’s Association agreed to a new deal in the midst of this season that implements more punitive penalties for teams like the Warriors, Clippers and others that choose to spend deep into the tax.
That matters because once teams pass that second luxury tax apron, they’ll lose access to key roster-building tools like the NBA’s taxpayer mid-level exception. They also will be prevented from signing players who have been waived during the season if that player’s previous salary was larger than the midlevel exception.”
Maybe we should see more NBA trades in the Finals. The Nuggets are trendsetters.
The Miami Heat have their backs up against the wall facing a 2-1 deficit against the Nuggets with Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray both on a tear. These are the exact sorts of games the Heat somehow find themselves winning. I’m not saying they’ll win outright, but I do think it’ll be a close one. I’d take Miami +3.5.
