For NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, the issue of the arbitration dispute between the Philadelphia 76ers and Australian point guard Ben Simmons, in addition to having nothing new to report during his press conference on Wednesday, is not an issue that keeps him awake at night, as is the issue of the constant absences of star players in various NBA games, something that does not satisfy him.
Adam Silver’s words
“I’m not standing here saying I have a great solution,” Silver said at a news after this week’s meeting at the Board of Governors. “Part of the issue is injuries. One of the things we have focused on at the league office and we’re spending, we had begun to spend a lot of time on pre-pandemic , are there things we can do in terms of sharing information, resources around the league to improve best practices, rehabilitation?”
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For Silver part of the best practices he mentioned have been the incentives that have been put in place during the regular season, the main one being the play-in tournament, which was instituted as an alternative measure during the suspension of the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic and which he said is here to stay.
Happy with the play-in tournament
“The other way we can get at it, in terms of player participation, is creating other incentives. The play-in tournament, I thought, was a beginning of creating renewed incentives for teams to remain competitive and be fighting for playoff position. It might be through in-season tournaments and changes in format where we can get at it.”
Another likely solution for Silver would be to reduce the number of regular season games, as he believes that the 82 games played by each team are too many.
“I also have said in the past, if we have too many games, that’s something we should look at as well,” Silver said. “It’s something, as we sit down and we’re looking at new media deals and looking at a new collective bargaining agreement, we will be studying.”
Marca
