Adam Silver was asked during his All-Star Game media availability about the issues of tampering and trade requests. The question posed whether there are sufficient tools available to the NBA on the issue.
Both topics have been a topic of conversation of late due to the trade request of Anthony Davis.
"I try to look at that issue in terms of historical context of this league," said Silver. "You know, trade demands and tampering are two very different topics. I mean, certainly when it comes to tampering, I believe the League has all the tools needed in order to investigate and potentially prosecute, so to speak, a tampering claim. I believe that within our rules the people at the League office who are in charge of those areas do a terrific job. It’s not to say that there isn’t some conversation that the League office isn’t aware of, and I think we draw appropriate lines because nobody who’s part of the NBA wants to live in a police state either. So within reason, I think we’re doing a good job enforcing our rules.
"In terms of trade demands, again, certainly, that’s nothing new in this league, and I won’t name names, but some of the greatest players in the history of this league have demanded trades at various points in their contract. Having said that, no one likes to see an instance where a player is demanding that he be traded when he still is in the middle of a contractual obligation to a team. It’s one of the reasons why, in the most recent case, I fined the player, even though it wasn’t the player, but his agent, who demanded that trade.
"I recognize that there’s very little I’m going to do to ever stop that completely. I think this goes back to the earlier question, though, about the system elements, and I think the question is, can we do a better job creating a league in which the competition is fair for all 30 teams? I do think over time we will do an even better job there. I mean, I will say that every situation is a bit unique, and I think that there’s a tendency to sort of quickly decide who’s at fault in those situations, and ultimately, as we look at any individual situation as a League office, generally, they’re a little bit more complex than people might understand.
"But I would just say, blanketly, no, I don’t like trade demands, and I wish they didn’t come, and I wish all those matters were handled behind closed doors. But don’t forget, even part of it maybe, the League has to take responsibility. In the most recent collective bargaining agreement, the thought was teams should be able to be in a position to extend a year early, so that a player didn’t reach the end of his contract and then a team was then in a position where they were blind-sided and say, well, we had no idea the player wasn’t going to stay. And the notion of extending a year earlier is so you could have that conversation with the player, and the player told you behind closed doors, of course, “I’m going to honor my contract, but I don’t plan on staying at the end of it.” The team would be in a position to get fair value for the player.
"Once again, the law of unintended consequences, it hasn’t worked as precisely as we had planned. That’s another area we have to focus on."
