Adam Silver: NBA can create 'a better system' for competitive balance
Saying that he doesn't think the Golden State Warriors' dominance is bad for the league, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said owners held a "robust" conversation at the board of governors meeting about improving the current competitive landscape and that the NBA can create "a better system."cheap nike nfl jerseys wholesale
Silver also said the NBA is ready to change its current age limit of 19 to 18 and will eventually sit down with the National Basketball Players Association to discuss the issue.
While that would take place down the road, Silver said the league is already looking into ways to address competitive balance or imbalance between the Western and Eastern conferences.
"I'm not here to say we have a problem," Silver said following the annual board of governors meeting in Las Vegas. "I love where the league is right now. But as I said earlier, I think we can create a better system. We learn from each successive deal, we try new things, we make predictions about how caps and exceptions will work. We have great economists who come in on our side of the table; the union does as well. But it's not a perfect science in trying to predict the behavior of our teams, and things change in the marketplace as well. So I don't think it is necessarily per se bad that the Warriors are so dominant.
"As I've said before, we're not trying to create some sort of forced parity. What we are really focused on is parity of opportunity. ... There are changes we can make to the system and I think we will create a more competitive balance and a more equality of opportunity. And the discussion in the room, people weren't coming in necessarily complaining, but I think as good business people do, they are looking out to the future and saying how can we improve things."
One scenario for addressing the imbalance between the conferences -- the Warriors, from the West, just won their third championship in four seasons with a sweep of the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals -- is the idea of seeding teams 1-through-16 in the playoffs. Silver says that has "real appeal" but would take time to implement.cheap nfl jerseys china nike
"The most significant obstacle to seeding 1-through-16, as appealing as that would be to me and I think a lot of fans, would be the dramatic increase in travel that would follow," Silver said. "In our estimate, we could be looking at roughly 40-50 percent more travel. ... It doesn't mean we can't, but it is not something we can do quickly. It would require really a wholesale re-examination of how we do the schedule, how our television deal works. ... We are going to look at it. I think it has a real appeal to ownership and I know it does to fans. It's just not such an easy thing to do."
The Los Angeles Lakers announced LeBron James' signing this week, making official the massive void left in the East. With the man who had won eight consecutive Eastern Conference titles now out West, the East is open for a new champion.
