NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Skirts Accountability In Annual, And Very Orchestrated, Press Conference

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — In a league showing measurable signs of erosion, last year’s All-Star Game drew just 4.7 million viewers across TNT Sports platforms. It was the second-least-watched in NBA history and a 13 percent drop from the year prior.

Yet NBA Commissioner Adam Silver devoted no more than 20 minutes to media questions.

Silver, now 12 years into his tenure, met reporters on Day 2 of All-Star Weekend festivities, braced for a media corps that often treats league leadership gently.

Is This Guy Ready To Save A League He Seemingly Failed?

This time, however, there was no shortage of material.

Fan intrigue is slipping.

Sports betting controversies continue to test the integrity of the product.

Tanking has reemerged as a competitive strategy.

Affordability concerns alienate the average fan, with Sunday’s All-Star Game at the Intuit Dome carrying a get-in price hovering around $900 at tip-off.

Even the league’s biggest stage is showing softness.

The 2025 NBA Finals Game 2 averaged 8.76 million viewers, the lowest non-pandemic Game 2 audience since 2007.

Game 3 drew roughly 9.2 million, down nearly 20 percent from the same game the year before.

Declining interest is no longer anecdotal. It is measurable.

So, scheduled for 1 p.m. PT, Silver arrived roughly 10 minutes late. He opened with nearly five minutes reflecting on Bob Cousy and the first-ever All-Star Game 75 years ago.

Adam Silver dedicates a small window to media questions. (Credit: OutKick)

By the time he finished his opening remarks, nearly half of the allotted half-hour session had evaporated.

With a PR-controlled window already shrinking, the commissioner finally began taking questions with about 15 minutes remaining.

More Money, More Problems, More Tanking?

In a league confronting measurable decline, barely a quarter-hour was reserved for accountability.

The first topic was tanking, which Silver himself admitted is "worse this year than in recent memory," just days after the league fined the Jazz and Pacers $600,000 for roster manipulation.

"It’s time to take a fresh look at this and to see whether that’s an antiquated way of going about doing it," Silver said.

"I think part of the problem is that if you step back, the fundamental theory behind the draft is to help your worst-performing teams restock and be able to compete.

"The issue is if teams are manipulating their performance in order to get higher draft picks, even in a lottery, then the question becomes … are they really the worst-performing teams? … It’s a bit of a conundrum."

A conundrum, perhaps.

A solution, not yet.

For a league that publicly acknowledges tanking is worsening, the response felt more academic than corrective.

Unless you were seated in the first row or in particularly comfortable standing with the league, your question struggled to find daylight.

By 1:30 p.m., the session concluded — a tightly managed, carefully paced availability that offered little clarity and even less urgency.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver speaks at a press conference during 2026 NBA All-Star Weekend at Intuit Dome on February 14, 2026, in Inglewood, California. (Photo by Ryan Sirius Sun/Getty Images)

OutKick attended with hopes of asking about the league’s increasingly loud voice in social matters, or about integrity concerns tied to the rapid rise of legalized sports betting.

That rise has already ensnared players such as Jontay Porter, who received an indefinite ban, and Terry Rozier, who recently won a $26.6 million grievance against the league.

Those questions, like several others, never materialized.

Also lingering was whether Silver sees himself as the right steward for a league desperate for renewed energy.

Since succeeding the late, great David Stern, Silver has often been viewed as a stark philosophical contrast, more consensus-builder than disciplinarian.

Time For a Change?

But consensus does little to energize a drifting product.

Silver touts lucrative media-rights deals, yet declining ratings and lukewarm All-Star engagement suggest a disconnect between boardroom wins and fan appetite.

Constant format changes, including this year’s "Team USA vs. The World" tournament concept, reflect experimentation but not necessarily conviction.

At some point, tinkering becomes parody.

Do the league’s best players, many of whom approach All-Star Weekend with visible reluctance, view these changes as a solution?

LeBron James offered a more candid assessment than his commissioner early Sunday at his own press conference.

"I like the East-West format," James said.

"The USA versus the world… the world is gigantic over the USA. So, I’m just trying to figure out how that makes sense … I don’t want to dive too much into it, though. We’ll see what happens with this."

It was hardly a ringing endorsement.

Leading into the showcase event, a now-routine question echoed among league observers, including Bill Simmons: Is Adam Silver the right commissioner to revive a league grappling with declining interest and fading intrigue?

With All-Star ratings near historic lows and Finals audiences trending downward outside of the pandemic anomaly, the league’s erosion is visible in the numbers.

It is unfolding on Silver’s watch.

And it is difficult to imagine the same indolent leadership presiding over the kind of radical change the NBA now requires.

Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela