Adam Silver Might Be Drunk With Power After Suggesting We Could One Day See The NBA Allow Top European Teams To Enter And Compete In The Playoffs

Bryan Bedder. Getty Images.

I have to imagine that being the NBA Commissioner isn't exactly an "easy" job. And while he hasn't been perfect, I do think Adam Silver has done a lot to grow the league and the game of basketball, not just here in the States, but all over the world during his tenure as Commissioner. There are certainly things I would bet he wish he could take back, like how the other week he basically told basketball fans around the world to stop being poor and pay up for all the different streaming services and that the NBA is a "highlight league" and whatnot. That wasn't great.

In recent years, we've seen Silver throw out different ideas from the Play In, to different All Star Game formats to the creation of the In-Season Tournament that the league is hoping people will eventually start to give a shit about. Some of these ideas have worked out better than others, and we'll see how the new Team USA vs The World format plays out at this year's All Star Game.

But one thing Silver clearly has a hard on for is expanding the NBA into Europe. Guy is obsessed with taking the NBA overseas, which I can understand on some level because the NBA is a global league that plays a global sport. Why not try and get some of that sweet, sweet European money? They'd be silly not to. 

Having said that, I'm starting to think Adam Silver and everyone else in the league office need to chill the fuck out when it comes to this idea. It's beginning to feel like they're taking things a tad too far….

“You could imagine teams from Europe, potentially Africa, competing in that tournament,” Silver said. “You possibly could see teams coming into our playoffs, top seeds from other leagues. But over time, I think, for example, certainly in Europe as plane travel gets faster… I’m reading all the time about more opportunities in aviation. When I think of the flight from New York to LA for example, there’s no reason if we had four teams in Europe, you couldn’t travel, play the Knicks or Nets, travel to London, play three, four times in Europe, come back home. So I think it’s very doable in our league."

Adam, let's just take a breath, shall we? If you want to have some preseason games overseas, fine. If you want to take the IST overseas somehow and make it like a Champions League sort of deal and invite the top teams from other top Euro leagues to participate, OK…I can get behind that. Not sure how the logistics would work, but you can figure that out. 

But altering the NBA playoffs to include European teams?

To me, this feels like you're losing the plot. If you want to put a team in Europe and have them play a normal NBA schedule, fine, I guess. But in what world should we be having non-NBA teams participate in the NBA playoffs? Is this somehow rooted in that dumb as shit "World Champion" debate? I certainly hope not. How do you even figure out that seeding? Terrible idea.

And while I have the platform, allow me to speak up for the fine people of Seattle.

Hey Adam, maybe instead of pleasuring yourself to the idea of expanding the NBA to Europe, you wake the hell up and bring the Sonics back to Seattle. Enough with the cockteasing about NBA expansion in the US only to blue ball that entire region/fanbase and instead do shit like this that no NBA fan is asking for. You know what they are asking for? The Sonics. The people want this back in our lives again

I mean, what are we doing? Why are you trying to expand and do everything possible under the sun other than the one thing that basketball fans truly want? I'm sure there are reasons, but even without knowing them, I know they're dogshit. Give us a team in Seattle and Vegas and call it a day. Take the IST international if you need to scratch that itch, since no NBA fanbase really gives a shit about that. Not to mention the whole idea behind it in the first place was European soccer and the different in-season trophies. That I could see being cool, but this whole adding those teams to the NBA playoffs is a horrendous idea.

I also can't help but think that perhaps Silver is a little worried about a potential LIV Golf situation on his hands courtesy of LeBron James & Co

and this is partly why he's so obsessed with being first to make this stuff with Europe happen. We all know LeBron wants to be an owner of a new expansion team, and for all we know, this potential international league is his leverage play as a way to make that happen.

The overall point is, this just feels like Silver is drunk with power and is trying to do too much. I'm not saying ignore Europe altogether, but potentially changing the NBA playoffs for it is beyond stupid in my opinion. We've already had the playoff tweak, which was the Play In. That idea has worked. Just leave the playoffs alone and give us back the Sonics, it's really that simple.