[The Ringer] The 15 biggest challenges facing Adam Silver in his next 10 years

[Belize King]

The NBA needs to embrace capitalism

Abolish the cap, luxury tax, profit sharing

Establish relegation

Then the regular season will mean something

I created a whole thread about regulation. The comments.

 

[OneManGang]

I don't know how, or if this even makes sense, but the NBA needs to somehow promote TEAMS more-so than individuals imo. Of course there will always be superstars and that's good, but sometimes I feel like teams as a concept are kind of an afterthought. Can be simple things, for example on Knicks games there's always some small trivia question about the history of the team. Brings some sense of continuity in some way. Because otherwise with all the player movement, same styles of play, plain jerseys with no identity and arenas looking/sounding the same there's really not much in terms of identity.

Nailed it

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

There are no "future problems".

Same crackers who told you "the double apron will ruin basketball and no teams will be able to trade players and all these non superstar players won't get paid" are the same crackers telling you "if the lead doesn't fix this thing that isn't broken they going to be in trouble in x years".

There are always “future problems.” Pretending that everything will continue to go well as it is now is naive thinking.

 

[ROFL_GUY]

A bad football game > a bad basketball game

I grew up playing basketball in an actual league in Los Angeles since I was 8.

Played jv/varsity in HS.. I was a wr on varsity in bellflower ..

Football molds you even @ levels that are that miniscule over indivusalim like bball

Basketball has more skilled people but ltta divas


Football everyone needs to move as an actual team

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

When Bron and Steph retire the league is cooked and I’m here for it.. fukk em… The sheer disdain and contempt the how the refs treat Steph.. Stern would’ve sonned them like he sonned Joey Crawford when he tried to pull that clown shyt with Tim Duncan..

 

[Anerdyblackguy]

The only real issues here are the “Face of the league” and “The viewing experience”.

 

[Shadow King]

The NBA needs to embrace capitalism

Abolish the cap, luxury tax, profit sharing

Establish relegation

Then the regular season will mean something

They already profit share and getting rid of the cap and luxury tax will diminish the regular season even more.

 

[IIVI]

When Bron and Steph retire the league is cooked and I’m here for it.. fukk em… The sheer disdain and contempt the how the refs treat Steph.. Stern would’ve sonned them like he sonned Joey Crawford when he tried to pull that clown shyt with Tim Duncan..

It really shouldn't be this bad. When refs have that much impact where you can tell they're affecting the outcome of games that dramatically, you have a harder time convincing people it's a real sport and less WWE. It's the least impartial I've seen the sport in a long time.

That 17-3 play-off record Scott Foster has on Chris Paul is a funny stat line sure, but it actually makes people want to watch the game less because it's almost like they know the outcome at this point. The refs have been a real suppressive/limiting factor to the Silver era where there have been some terrific players.

If you're not going to give Steph some of those calls, you can't give other players those calls in addition to giving them more calls for initiating contact vs defenders. If there's anything about the NBA that deserves an F grade over the last 10 years it's the refereeing and it seems like now more than ever they've been upgrading touch fouls to fragrant status like the league don't got a problem with being labeled "soft" already.

 

[BigMoneyGrip]

It really shouldn't be this bad. When refs have that much impact where you can tell they're affecting the outcome of games that dramatically, you have a harder time convincing people it's a real sport and less WWE. It's the most impartial I've seen the sport in a long time.

That 17-3 play-off record Scott Foster has on Chris Paul is a funny stat line sure, but it actually makes people want to watch the game less because it's almost like they know the outcome at this point. The refs have been a real suppressive/limiting factor to the Silver era where there have been some terrific players.

If you're not going to give Steph some of those calls, you can't give other players those calls in addition to giving them more calls for initiating contact vs defenders.

shyt is wild and just downright disrespectful and Silver think the fans don’t see the obvious.. The officiating has been downright atrocious and I know silver here the rumblings about he yet he won’t address it.. Another thing too is legalized gambling like the refs doing this shyt clearly to line their pockets..

It’s shyt like the lakers having the #1 Freethrow disparity in the league yet dead last in drives to the basket… but folk will tell you Steph shoot to much 3s that’s why he don’t get no calls but he actually drives to the basket and gets clobbered and the refs will act like they ain’t see the foul and not call it

nikkas like SGA will foul bait and get to the line like 15 times, Embid foul baits so on and so forth.. Refs will literally make the game about FTs fukkin up the flow and product.. Like folk ain’t paying thousands of dollars to come see them nikkas calling Fts

Scott Foster in that game with the suns and GS.. suns shot damn near 50 FTs like what in the entire fukk.. same game CP was ready haul off and steal on fosters jaw…

League decides Foster won’t ref another GS game the rest of the season..

 

[pete clemenza]

TNT is an issue too, which might be a more sensitive topic given how popular their coverage is. But truth be told it's clear Shaq, Chuck etc don't give a shyt about modern basketball, don't put any effort into this, and are just getting by on chemistry amongst themselves. You listen to those guys talk about games and they resent it. I just don't see how or why anyone would want their product to be handled like that, by people who don't give a fukk.

Another thing is the lack of rivalries. NBA might be the only major sport in America where nobody cares about rivalries. I remember when the Pistons v Pacers was must-see television because there would be fukkery. Or Lakers v San Antonio when Kobe/Shaq/Duncan/Ginobili were playing. Knicks v Heat. Now all that shyt is dead. Even Lakers v Celtics is whatever because so many fans are just fans of players moreso than teams/organizations. Sure there are diehard team fans still out there who probably carry on rivalries but overall it seems like the focus is more on stanning individual players.

Shaq was also the guy to hop on TNT and tell Charles and others they weren't sh*t without an NBA ring. Then came Bron to Miami, KD to the Warriors, and so forth. Then came the negative narratives, critiques, rumors, and drama immediately after that. Low key Shaq f*cked up a lot of sh*t about how the league is covered imo. Once he got on the TNT crew everything switched along with SAS and Skip on ESPN.

 

[Squirrel from Meteor Man]

A bad football game > a bad basketball game

Absolutely not. Those Thursday night games are not watchable. The London games are some of the worst sporting events I’ve ever seen in my life

The Pistons were must watch TV during their losing streak

 

[Space Cowboy]

Absolutely not. Those Thursday night games are not watchable. The London games are some of the worst sporting events I’ve ever seen in my life

The Pistons were must watch TV during their losing streak

Well I prefer watching football to basketball. Seems you're the opposite. Congratulations.

 

[MoshpitMazi]

My idea straight up would be move the season to be after the NFL season so you won't be competing with them anymore.

That way you can have less games and Summertime Play-off Basketball.

Only thing that would really suck is you'd miss out on International competition like the Olympics.

NBA season starting in February/March would be so dope for kids because they also know school would be done soon. A lot of dopamine hits and a lot of addiction.

I like this idea

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

The only real issues here are the “Face of the league” and “The viewing experience”.

Add gambling as well for all sports leagues because of the potential long term implications from it because if said players, teams or anyone close to the leagues engage in fukkery involving it.

It’s a quick way for another Tim Donaghy situation to happen again and they may not be able to get the government off their back like what happened last time.

 

[Regular_P]

TNT is an issue too, which might be a more sensitive topic given how popular their coverage is. But truth be told it's clear Shaq, Chuck etc don't give a shyt about modern basketball, don't put any effort into this, and are just getting by on chemistry amongst themselves. You listen to those guys talk about games and they resent it. I just don't see how or why anyone would want their product to be handled like that, by people who don't give a fukk.

Another thing is the lack of rivalries. NBA might be the only major sport in America where nobody cares about rivalries. I remember when the Pistons v Pacers was must-see television because there would be fukkery. Or Lakers v San Antonio when Kobe/Shaq/Duncan/Ginobili were playing. Knicks v Heat. Now all that shyt is dead. Even Lakers v Celtics is whatever because so many fans are just fans of players moreso than teams/organizations. Sure there are diehard team fans still out there who probably carry on rivalries but overall it seems like the focus is more on stanning individual players.

@pete clemenza already said it but Shaq is the one who ruined the discourse on TNT.

Does any league besides the NFL have rivalries that matter anymore? With player movement, the modern schedule and divisions not really meaning anything now it's tough to have longstanding rivalries.

In the NFL, teams play their division opponents twice each year, two other divisions and then against opponents that finished at the same level as them the year before (so division winners play each other every year). That's a natural way to give more importance to division rivals and then teams that are good every year. That's why Buffalo and KC play every year (Allen and Mahomes). Those games matter too because of the lack of overall games and not quite as many playoff spots as the NBA.

The 82 game schedule of the NBA basically kills meaningful rivalries until the playoffs. It's exciting when the top teams/players face-off but the losing team isn't really risking any playoff seeding as a result. They'd have to really alter the schedule to build those rivalries again.

Right now, it's four games against division opponents, two against every team in the other conference and a mix of three/four games against other teams in your conference outside the division.

What if they tilted it towards division/conference heavily? Six games against each team in your division, four against the other teams in the conference and only one game against teams in the other conference.