OKLAHOMA CITY — In the entirety of David Stern’s 30-year tenure as the NBA’s commissioner, eight different franchises won a championship.
Adam Silver, the successor to Stern, is in the 12th season of his run overseeing the league, and a ninth different franchise is about to win a title on his watch.
The parity era is not new, and it most certainly lives on this year, with either the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Indiana Pacers set to become champions. The winning team in these NBA Finals, which started Thursday night in Oklahoma City, will be the seventh different franchise to win it all in the past seven seasons, a run the likes of which the league has never experienced before.
“We set out to create a system that allowed for more competition around the league,” Silver said Thursday night in his annual news conference ahead of the NBA Finals. “The goal being to have 30 teams all in the position, if well managed, to compete for championships. And that’s what we’re seeing here.”
In Stern’s 30 years, the eight championship-winning franchises were the Los Angeles Lakers (eight times), Chicago Bulls (six), San Antonio Spurs (four), Boston Celtics, Detroit Pistons and Miami Heat (three each), Houston Rockets (twice) and Dallas Mavericks (once).
For Silver, the chart looks much different. The Golden State Warriors have four titles since he became commissioner, and the Celtics, Lakers, Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers, Denver Nuggets, Milwaukee Bucks and Toronto Raptors have one apiece in that stretch. Indiana has never won an NBA title; neither has Oklahoma City, though its franchise has, with the forerunner Seattle SuperSonics the champs in 1979.
“David used to joke early on in his tenure as commissioner,” Silver said. “He said his job was to go back and forth between Boston and L.A. handing out championship trophies.”
This seven-in-seven run started in 2019, immediately after Cleveland and Golden State played in four consecutive title series and the league heard plenty of grumbling about a lack of unpredictability. In that seven-year span, 11 franchises (out of a maximum of 14, obviously) have been to the NBA Finals at least once, with the Pacers and the Thunder the newest names on that list.
“It’s healthy for the league for all 30 teams to be constantly positioning,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “If you’re good, you have to navigate being good. If you’re not good, there’s systematic things that can help you. I think generally that’s good for the league. We’re not focused on what’s good for the league. We’re focused on what’s good for the Thunder. We’re trying to operate within that environment.”
Silver covered several other topics during his time with reporters.
LEAGUE EXPANSION
There’s an NBA Board of Governors meeting in Las Vegas next month, and Silver thinks it’s likely that those team owners will decide at that time whether or not to take the next official step toward expanding the league in the coming years.
Officially exploring the notion of adding teams seems likely.
“It will be on the agenda to take the temperature of the room,” Silver said. “We have committees that are already talking about it, but my sense is at that meeting they’re going to give direction to me and my colleagues at the league office that we should continue to explore.”
That does not mean it will definitely happen, even though there are certain markets — Las Vegas and Seattle among them — that are known to want NBA teams.
“I’d say the current sense is we should be exploring it,” Silver said. “I don’t think it’s automatic.”
Silver said he and the league office have gotten numerous calls from groups about potential expansion, with the standard response, at least until now, being that the NBA appreciates the interest but isn’t ready for any real talks.
That’s what will likely change, with the plan — if the owners give the go-ahead — set to include engagement with outside advisors evaluating market opportunities, media opportunities and other factors.
ALL-STAR GAME
Speaking on the topic of next year’s NBA All-Star Game for a second straight day, Silver said he hasn’t given up on finding a formula that works.
Silver revealed in an interview Wednesday on FS1 that a U.S. versus the world game is possible in some form for next year’s midseason exhibition, which will be aired in mid-February on NBC — smack in the middle of the Winter Olympics, also on NBC. That would make its theme fit perfectly with Olympic coverage.
“I think we’re on to something,” Silver said.
The idea has been bandied about for months, and top international players such as San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama from France and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo from Greece have said they would be intrigued by such an idea.
“We are looking at something that brings an international flavor into All-Star competition,” Silver said. “We’re still experimenting internally with different formats and talking with the players’ association about that. I don’t think straight-up U.S. versus world makes sense, but that’s not what they did in the NHL either.”
Silver was referring to the 4 Nations Face-Off, which was a smashing success during a stoppage during the NHL season this past February. Men’s hockey teams featuring NHL stars and representing Canada, Finland, Sweden and the U.S. took part in that tournament.
SEASON LENGTH
After a postseason in which injuries hit a number of top stars — Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Golden State’s Stephen Curry and Milwaukee’s Damian Lillard among them — Silver said the league isn’t looking at reducing the current 82-game regular season in an effort to lower workload on players.
“Money’s part of it. There’s no question about it. We’re a business,” Silver said. “But having said that, I don’t really see the benefit to reducing the number of games. … We have absolutely no data to suggest that.”