NBA commissioner Adam Silver is like the rest of us, in that he has heard the complaints about the new collective bargaining agreement and the second tax apron, and how they impact teams’ ability to retain their own players or make upgrades.
The New York Knicks, Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets are among the new CBA’s critics.
Silver addressed those complaints in an interview with reporters in Las Vegas, home of the NBA Summer League.
In short, he said the second tax apron is working and helping to restore competitive balance among the 30 teams.
“What I’m hearing from teams, even as the second apron is moving to kick in, the teams are realizing there are real teeth in those provisions,” Silver said. “I don’t know how to view this, but I know reports have come out that the summer was boring from a fan standpoint. I don’t certainly think it was. We still saw a lot of critically important players moving from one team to another as free agents.
“But at the same time, I think this new system, while I don’t want it to be boring, I want to put teams in a position, 30 teams, to better compete. I think we’re on our way to doing that.”
Silver also refuted the idea that the NBA has anything against dynasties.
“As long as we can create something close to a level playing field in terms of the tools available to teams to compete, I’m absolutely fine with dynasties and I’m fine with new teams emerging every year,” Silver said.
The NBA hasn’t had a repeat champion since the Golden State Warriors won back-to-back titles in 2017-18. The previous six winners were the Toronto Raptors, Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, Warriors, Denver Nuggets and Boston Celtics, respectively. Only the Celtics and Miami Heat have been to the Finals twice in that span.
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