Adam Silver
Technology is changing the world; it's changing our sport. It's changing the way people are following the NBA.Collection: Technology
I would say I was into two sports as a kid: basketball and baseball.Collection: Sports
Basketball is so unique. It's both a team and an individual sport.
While, to me, daily fantasy is in no way sports betting, it's certainly a cousin of sports betting in that it attracts many of the same type of people who would otherwise choose to bet on sports.
I'm a huge fan of the game. It's beyond a fringe benefit of obviously getting to work at the league office. I watch a ton of games in person, on television, on all forms of new media I follow the league. And so it's just beyond my wildest imaginations to me to now be the commissioner of the NBA.
Strong college basketball is great for the NBA.
I tend to be a pretty physical person.
Ultimately, the issue is not whether you are pro- or anti-sports betting. You begin, from my standpoint, from the premise that it is going to continue to exist, and if it is going to continue to exist, should it be shoved underground, or should it be regulated?
I love technology. I have my iPad, iPad mini, iPhone and Mac laptop. Because I love technology, I think if I were not at the NBA, I would try to be part of a tech startup company.
I watch college basketball and sports in general. I'm also a runner. I live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan near Central Park, so I try to squeeze in runs through Central Park when I can.
I ran track. I ran cross country. But I did not play organized basketball in high school, at least on our team. But I played a lot of sports.
I'm not coming in as an advocate of sports gambling. I'm trying to be more of a realist to say it's going on in a massive way... and I think the right course would be therefore to legalize it and regulate it.
Let me be clear: Any new approach must ensure the integrity of the game. One of my most important responsibilities as commissioner of the NBA is to protect the integrity of professional basketball and preserve public confidence in the league and our sport. I oppose any course of action that would compromise these objectives. But I believe that sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulatedCollection: Basketball
We want to get to a point where Twitter highlights lead to purchase of a live gameCollection: Games
We didn't see [the NBA lockout] as a victory at all. It was far from what we set it out to accomplish in bargaining, but I thought it was a fair compromise.Collection: Nba