https://theathletic.com/4226444/2023/02/18/adam-silver-speaks-at-all-star-weekend/
Not long after Anthony Edwards bravely criticized players for sitting as part of "load management," Adam Silver came out defending it. I thought his defense was pathetic and a sad example of pure pandering to star players. I posted the article about it, but Silver looks far worse in the video. David Stern was a tough leader who was instrumental in taking the NBA from near obscurity to the height of popularity. In contrast, Silver is a weak, ineffectual caretaker. Yes, the League is doing well in attendance and revenue. But that can change over time if the League continues to prioritize star players over the fans whose ticket purchases and viewership enable the massive guaranteed contracts those stars receive.
Adam Silver
Re: Adam Silver
lipoli390 wrote:https://theathletic.com/4226444/2023/02/18/adam-silver-speaks-at-all-star-weekend/
Not long after Anthony Edwards bravely criticized players for sitting as part of "load management," Adam Silver came out defending it. I thought his defense was pathetic and a sad example of pure pandering to star players. I posted the article about it, but Silver looks far worse in the video. David Stern was a tough leader who was instrumental in taking the NBA from near obscurity to the height of popularity. In contrast, Silver is a weak, ineffectual caretaker. Yes, the League is doing well in attendance and revenue. But that can change over time if the League continues to prioritize star players over the fans whose ticket purchases and viewership enable the massive guaranteed contracts those stars receive.
The ticket sales are shrinking piece of the pie with the TV deals continuing to rise with all the streaming players (apple, amazon, google). The pivot to global branding and player centered marketing will continue to drive the sport. I hate it too, as I love cheering for the city of my youth, but that is not what the next generation of fans here or overseas care about Im afraid. Ive met so many younger NBA fans who just followed Lebron team to team. I think that is what we are in for as the sport moves forward even though it pains me.
All that being said I love Edwards going old school and his loyalty may prove to be part of what makes him special for Minnesota.
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Coolbreeze44
- Posts: 13192
- Joined: Mon Jul 08, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Adam Silver
I too thought Silver's pandering to the players was pathetic. Great job by Ant.
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Camden [enjin:6601484]
- Posts: 18065
- Joined: Tue Jul 09, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Adam Silver
Good stuff above. I just don't like or approve of Adam Silver in general. He radiates weakness, in my opinion. I especially don't enjoy his hypocritical and contradictory nature on political and social issues. He has not been consistent on that front and I think it takes away from the brand.
Re: Adam Silver
Adam Silver is right the NBA is doing quite well for themselves. It doesn't mean they can alienate fans from watching the sport. Of course you can't pleases anyone.
Anywho here are some of my thoughts.
Is resting instead of playing a way to avoid injuries? Sure. The question to me is more whether it should be used and to what extent. The punting on one game basically resting all the good players does kinda suck. Of course the NFL the last week of the season has guys sitting a ton. What percentage of the schedule is that one game? Sure it's a more brutal sport but still players are sitting some with no injury designation. The other thing is how many of these players are being told by their organization to sit? It's not just players sitting. I think there are definitely cases where players have sat and are pretty unhappy about it.
The question that hasn't been answered is why it seems like (don't have the numbers) there are more injuries now than xxx amount of years ago. Better equipment better knowledge of the body, better medical teams etc etc but in some cases worse results. I think there are 2 significant factors.
1. Players don't take much time off in general. This is probably a positive and negative. I think some players may never take enough time off and their body just keeps getting taxed.
2. The talent level has been raised across sports. More is expected it's more competitive than ever. I'm addition players have even more resources to make them better. Watching video is easy you can bring up a tablet and watch your opener or film of yourself and improve etc. you don't have to go to a film room or create one in your house. There are more camera angles too. I think all of us bemoan all the stats to some extent while knowing they are helpful. It's just another thing to digest and add ability to make your game easier or make it more difficult for someone else.
What often gets said about today's athletes is they are lazy. I sure there are players that don't work hard enough but I think being upset because players are choosing or being told to choose whether to play or not to play is the thing to be upset about. I think most athletes work pretty hard to stay and make it in their profession. I think in the NBA if you aren't actually working at it someone is gonna eventually take your job. There is just too much talent and in some cases there isn't much difference between a guy on an NBA roster and one that isn't.
Anywho here are some of my thoughts.
Is resting instead of playing a way to avoid injuries? Sure. The question to me is more whether it should be used and to what extent. The punting on one game basically resting all the good players does kinda suck. Of course the NFL the last week of the season has guys sitting a ton. What percentage of the schedule is that one game? Sure it's a more brutal sport but still players are sitting some with no injury designation. The other thing is how many of these players are being told by their organization to sit? It's not just players sitting. I think there are definitely cases where players have sat and are pretty unhappy about it.
The question that hasn't been answered is why it seems like (don't have the numbers) there are more injuries now than xxx amount of years ago. Better equipment better knowledge of the body, better medical teams etc etc but in some cases worse results. I think there are 2 significant factors.
1. Players don't take much time off in general. This is probably a positive and negative. I think some players may never take enough time off and their body just keeps getting taxed.
2. The talent level has been raised across sports. More is expected it's more competitive than ever. I'm addition players have even more resources to make them better. Watching video is easy you can bring up a tablet and watch your opener or film of yourself and improve etc. you don't have to go to a film room or create one in your house. There are more camera angles too. I think all of us bemoan all the stats to some extent while knowing they are helpful. It's just another thing to digest and add ability to make your game easier or make it more difficult for someone else.
What often gets said about today's athletes is they are lazy. I sure there are players that don't work hard enough but I think being upset because players are choosing or being told to choose whether to play or not to play is the thing to be upset about. I think most athletes work pretty hard to stay and make it in their profession. I think in the NBA if you aren't actually working at it someone is gonna eventually take your job. There is just too much talent and in some cases there isn't much difference between a guy on an NBA roster and one that isn't.
Re: Adam Silver
It needs to end, and the talk about potentially tying all-star appearances and end of the year awards to games played is the right and easy answer to this. I wish they put it into the contracts as well. The players would care then.
If a parent spends money to go see a game with their child to see their favorite player, and finds out the day of, or even just days before, that blows, and there isn't a refund by the NBA. You'd be forced to try to resell or eat it.
If I go to a concert and the artist cancels last minute, I would see a refund. If I went to see a movie and it for some reason stopped airing halfway, I would get a refund.
If a parent spends money to go see a game with their child to see their favorite player, and finds out the day of, or even just days before, that blows, and there isn't a refund by the NBA. You'd be forced to try to resell or eat it.
If I go to a concert and the artist cancels last minute, I would see a refund. If I went to see a movie and it for some reason stopped airing halfway, I would get a refund.
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AbeVigodaLive
- Posts: 10272
- Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Adam Silver
The NBA will definitely reduce the number of games. I think they'll settle on 72.
And it's going to change very little when it comes to load management. The players will still sit near the same percentage of games. Let's say a player currently sits 21% of his games (plays 65 games out of 82).
Expect him to sit around 20% of the 72 games. That's going to be about 58 games played. Even at 15%, it's only 61 games played.
__________________
And back to my point about ALL of this player empowerment stuff in today's league ---------- how are fewer games good for the fans?
Ugh.
And it's going to change very little when it comes to load management. The players will still sit near the same percentage of games. Let's say a player currently sits 21% of his games (plays 65 games out of 82).
Expect him to sit around 20% of the 72 games. That's going to be about 58 games played. Even at 15%, it's only 61 games played.
__________________
And back to my point about ALL of this player empowerment stuff in today's league ---------- how are fewer games good for the fans?
Ugh.
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SameOldNudityDrew
- Posts: 3127
- Joined: Sat Jul 20, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Adam Silver
If anyone hasn't already watched Silver's entire press conference, here's the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4zDwK9XxiQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4zDwK9XxiQ
Re: Adam Silver
I'm stuck in the middle on this one. I'm also disappointed when I go to a game and find out that a star that I wanted to see live isn't playing, and the "old man" in me says these guys are paid millions of dollars and need to play if they aren't really injured. But I also recognize that the goal of savvy GMs and coaches not named Tom Thibodeau is to go as deep in the playoffs as possible, not to win a specific game on January 14th, and there is a belief that a rested player is likely to perform better in the playoffs. It's a complicated issue, but I suspect it is management that decides to rest players, not the players.
And is it any different in baseball? I grew up in an era when starting pitchers regularly pitched complete games, but now it's a rarity. It's load management again. The pitcher doesn't want to come out of the game in the 6th inning (you can see the typical reaction in the dugout), but managers have concluded that limiting innings during the regular season gives his team a better chance postseason.
I don't like it in either case and I admire Ant's enthusiasm, but my suspicion is that management is right in both baseball and basketball.
And is it any different in baseball? I grew up in an era when starting pitchers regularly pitched complete games, but now it's a rarity. It's load management again. The pitcher doesn't want to come out of the game in the 6th inning (you can see the typical reaction in the dugout), but managers have concluded that limiting innings during the regular season gives his team a better chance postseason.
I don't like it in either case and I admire Ant's enthusiasm, but my suspicion is that management is right in both baseball and basketball.
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AbeVigodaLive
- Posts: 10272
- Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 12:00 am
Re: Adam Silver
FNG wrote:I'm stuck in the middle on this one. I'm also disappointed when I go to a game and find out that a star that I wanted to see live isn't playing, and the "old man" in me says these guys are paid millions of dollars and need to play if they aren't really injured. But I also recognize that the goal of savvy GMs and coaches not named Tom Thibodeau is to go as deep in the playoffs as possible, not to win a specific game on January 14th, and there is a belief that a rested player is likely to perform better in the playoffs. It's a complicated issue, but I suspect it is management that decides to rest players, not the players.
And is it any different in baseball? I grew up in an era when starting pitchers regularly pitched complete games, but now it's a rarity. It's load management again. The pitcher doesn't want to come out of the game in the 6th inning (you can see the typical reaction in the dugout), but managers have concluded that limiting innings during the regular season gives his team a better chance postseason.
I don't like it in either case and I admire Ant's enthusiasm, but my suspicion is that management is right in both baseball and basketball.
I disagree a bit that it's primarily a management thing in the NBA. Even guys on bad teams have load management days.
The NBA is a player's league. If LeBron James wants to play... he's going to play. If he wants to sit out a game for rest even with his team currently out of the play-in... he's going to rest.