pepe1991 wrote:I was never big fan of Stern, but league felt "healthy" as sport under him, and he actually worked to make league better product for
SPORTS FANS.
He had to deal with wannabe gangsters, actual gangsters, hip hop culture from 90s, players beating coaches etc.
Silver turned product into casual spectators friendly , glorified friendly games,where due inflation of stats every team & fanbase is convinced that they have superstar(s) or future superstar(s).
Silver gave power to players without any tools to prevent abuse of power. That led to massive migration and superteams creation and he had to change cap rules to bribe players into staying with original teams, creating massive new problems for teams (supermax is toxic contract for team that uses it ).
Silver allowed player to create own player's agency & abuses all the CBA rules of tempering. That player for years has more power than Silver himself. We all know who he is.
Silver promised expansion but once again without any clear idea how. Current idea of expansion in Europe is type of league nobody in Europe wants. That thing without arab- oil-lords ain't happening. Good luck getting them to play by "rule book" of CBA.
Silver promised bigger revenue and indeed gave bigger revenue, but it is very clear that owners are fighting back and that's why Second Apron became a thing. To give sports excuse for owners to stop spending money on basketball team.
There are rumors that Celtics were sold because team simply was too expensive & not profitable under cap burden any more.
Silver still promises cap raise, but only revenue he can exploit is gambling money. I guess oil money is next. Once you combine sport that uses system of rewarding bad teams for being bad & already shady lottery and industry of gambling you are creating such a problem that he is simply too dumb to understand or too greedy to see.
NBA's holy Grail of integrity is salary cap , as he promotes parity. Yet, we kind a already know that teams abused it & found ways how to avoid cap.
I would personally argue that his idea of "parity" in current system is nothing but forced contenders cycling, as teams, even ones who do it "right way", still have no tools how to keep great roster for longer period of time due Second Apron restrictions & punishment.
btw Silver and NBA never "discover" anything. That's his modus operandi. Silver didn't discover or exposed Sterling being racist ( everybody knew) it was TMZ.
Silver didn't discover anything about Kawhi, Torre did. NBA in 2019 had investigation, despite Raptors & Lakers yelling , investigation didn't find anything wrong with Uncle Dennis asking parts of ownership of hockey team
Silver didn't discover anything about Rozier. Rather rushed in January to proclaim him freed from all charges. Until FBI dropped hammer.
Silver never finds anything, Silver always has same MO. Sweeping everything under a rug and pretending it didn't happen. Guy flat out lied to fans & media he never heared of Aspiration like 20 days ago.
