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If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 9:12 am
by pipfan
Before he decides on the Clipper case, what grade would you give him overall?

League has grown
Got rid of Sterling
I like the Playin

But
Loss of competitive integrity
too many gimmicks
Needs to kill ASG

Overall, I'd give him a C-it's a tough job

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 10:03 am
by Dominator83
I give him a C. I know that people like to say he's the best commissioner in sports, but he also has the easiest setup and he inherited a golden goose. I don't think he can handle Goddells job, where he would actually have to take PR bullets for his owners. And I don't think he would be able to turn around the NHLs popularity any more than Bettman can.

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 11:47 am
by Optms
RealGM moving in the right direction I see. 3 years ago this board would have given him an A. So I will accept the C. Realistically speaking tho,

F

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 1:17 pm
by Calvin Klein
Do not credit him for Sterling. Sterling's behaviour was known all across the NBA, even to us fans, long before 2014. The only reason they got rid of him was because all of it was made public and they had no other choice.

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 2:09 pm
by hauntedcomputer
He did his job-- made money and boosted team valuations.

As far as me as a spectator/fan:
--gambling has insinuated its way into every level of coverage, even live coverage
--the drama of end of games is utterly sapped by taking twenty minutes to play 90 seconds (I mostly just watch the edited game the next day now)
--the NBA media is far and away the dumbest in any sport or field of journalism besides politics
--not a huge fan of the barrage of threes but it does add some variability of outcome. They're just too easy to be worth 33 percent more than a regular basket.

I do like the increased competitive balance, because I enjoy the roster management, strategy, and player development aspects of the game much more than sooperdooperstar worship. I don't have a favorite team or really any favorite players, I like the entire story and watching the best athletes in the world engaged in complex feats.

I don't know how much he could realistically change course, given the league's institutional disrespect of its own past (to avoid paying pensions) and the decision to market stars instead of teams, the games, or the league as a whole. Money drives the machine.

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 2:17 pm
by Tim Kempton
Image

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 2:41 pm
by The Explorer
F. He has put the league in much worse condition than when he started in 2014.

- All star weekend become a joke under his watch
- Competitiveness of the game has dissipated - load management was rampant
- Gambling widely encouraged yet punished if done by a player - what did he expect?
- Took physicality out of the game - I know its technically the competition committee but he is the one who drove it
- In season tournament - throwing half a million dollars prize money at players to get them to care and try hard at their job is just disgusting
- Streaming mess and forcing fans to pay for multiple subscriptions to watch games, then telling fans they could just watch highlights. Completely tone-deaf
- NBA media is generally a joke compared to any other major sports media
- Let Draymond Green get away with everything and zero accountability
- Silenced players like Dwight Howard who spoke out in support of Palestine

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 2:53 pm
by Texas Chuck
hauntedcomputer wrote:. They're just too easy to be worth 33 percent more than a regular basket.



50% more. If it was only 33% more, you'd not see nearly the spamming you do now.

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 3:35 pm
by JRoy
C

Less whistles in the playoffs is great.
Hasn’t come down hard on LAC yet.
Needs to end the All Star game or just make it a 3 on 3 tournament

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 5:16 pm
by nomansland
Depends on your metrics. For the owners he probably gets a B+ because after all, this is about money, and franchise values are stupidly high and keep growing.

As a fan, maybe a C-. I dislike the in season tournament but love the play-in. The All-Star game has been beyond rescue for years and that's not his fault, but he's trying.

The jury's still out though based on what happens with the Clippers situation. And I have a feeling that when everything comes out in the wash- perhaps long after I'm dead- we're going to find out that yeah, the draft is corrupt and there are other things allowed to happen behind the scenes that are good for league revenues but suck for a lot of fanbases otherwise.

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 5:27 pm
by ImSlower
Maybe better than a Bronze, but certainly not deserving of a Gold.

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 5:59 pm
by Johnny Bball
When he's finished acting like a simp over the Clippers blatant cheating, is there a grade worse than F I can vote for?

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 6:08 pm
by Black Jack
Silver grade .999 Fine, perfect for solar panels, spoons, EVs, and so forth!

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 6:16 pm
by Blame Rasho
He was beloved when he was the guy who would do the 2nd round draft picks and now they have even messed up the nba draft coverage. Compare the TNT coverage to now on ESPN, it is puke worthy.

I would say D, but players and owners are making far more money than they ever did before even if it means like me as fan no longer attend games because of costs. So I guess C because the $$$ , but also F because I am not engaged enough because of the following reasons and well more important things in my life like family, mortgage, older parents, and etc.

Sooo I guess H or maybe J instead… nahhh Q as a letter grade.

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 7:48 pm
by DavidSterned
I went with D, only because if we're grading him on the metric of revenue then he's done an acceptable to good job there and the last couple TV deals have to objectively be looked at as a win for the NBA, even in the face of a changing media landscape. I also don't blame him entirely for the All Star weekend being a joke. That predates Silver and I actually give him some credit for at least trying to shake things up there, even if it hasn't worked.

Otherwise as a fan it's an F. The game play and regular season competitiveness have deteriorated significantly under his watch. The lack of balance between offense and defense has gotten way worse than it was in 2014. The league feels less culturally relevant now than at any point since maybe the very early 80s. And some of the idiotic and short-sighted gimmicks and rule changes are running the risk of turning the league into a full on farce. It's already teetering on the brink of that.

Not to mention his clunky messaging and egg-on-face moments. The 2020 bubble social justice stuff was awkwardly handled at best, the Hong Kong/China stuff, the gambling stuff, the recent "basketball is a highlight sport anyways" flub. Just a lot of self inflicted bullet wounds from Silver, IMO. I do think he tries at times to be a people pleaser, particularly when it comes to the players, but that it often doesn't work.

I also give him no credit for the Sterling situation as he literally had no choice there. And the league had already known for decades what kind of person Sterling was.

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 7:58 pm
by Ito
Bronze

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 8:06 pm
by OriAr
B - He's done the IST and the Play In which are both great IMO.
Ends of tight games are still too long and reffing is still too inconsistent.
TBD on how he handles the entire LAC-Kawhi fiasco... Gonna be a while before we find out.
Overall he's been fine.

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 9:13 pm
by Hoop Hunter
He's been good for the league, so a B right now.

Depends on how he handles Kawhi-gate, if could stay a B or drop down to a F.

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 10:20 pm
by SomeBunghole
I love the people in this thread who think Silver's job is to make them enjoy the NBA more.

Re: If you could grade Silver, what would you give him?

Posted: Sat Sep 20, 2025 10:26 pm
by AdamSSSlither
funny how slithering snake silver got praised for being a racial hero for his handling of the clipper donald sterling case.
when looking back reading betweens the lines you see a stipulation in tax law 1033 thats states if other owner vote you out and force you to sell then you dont pay tax. sterling paid $12 million then sold for $2 billion....just capital gains tax on $1.98 billion = $400+million.

silver is all about $$$ not league integrity. thats why he spearheaded talks about legalized gambling.
essentially helping sellout the integrity of all sports in america.

and now its clippers again, same guy who overpaid sterling overpaid kawhi.....no....i dont believe it......when you have astronomical amounts of money like ballmer the $ loses value and your desires become more important.

or is this setting the stage for a replay of the sterling saga.....ballmer caught red handed in cap circumvention gets voted out and forced to sell
he paid $2 billion sells $5 billion.....tax on $3 billion profit = a lot of money.........thanks again silver.

really to me,adam silverss biggest embarassment has been letting draymond get away with assault on multiple occassions and verbal abuse of refs and opponents over the course of years and do nothing because golden state owners have too much power in the league.
this has made all golden state games unwatchable for me unless its the playoff.

all in all the corporate smoke and mirrors for $$ is to be expected but the handling of draymond has directly effected my game watching experience.

the league $$ was going to grow like most all corporate $$ did regardless of who's commisioner over the past 15 years.

i just dont see what silver should get credit for besides maybe the play in tournament for playoffs.