CLEVELAND, Ohio — In this episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, Ethan Sands and Jimmy Watkins discuss the mounting pressures on NBA Commissioner Adam Silver. They critique Silver’s recent comments about the high cost of watching games and his suggestion that fans can consume the league through highlights.
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Takeaways:
1. Commissioner Silver’s “Highlights” Comment Criticized as Tone-Deaf
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is facing backlash for his comments regarding the rising costs for fans to watch games across various cable and streaming platforms. When questioned about accessibility, Silver noted that fans could consume the league through highlights, as the NBA is a “highlight-driven league.” The hosts described this response as a “slap in the face” to loyal fans who are being priced out of watching full games. Instead of addressing the financial burden placed on viewers, the commissioner’s suggestion to engage with the sport passively was seen as dismissive and a poor reflection on the league’s priorities, especially when compared to the growing accessibility of leagues like the WNBA.
2. Streaming Fragmentation Makes Watching Sports More Expensive
The podcast highlighted a major source of fan frustration: the scattering of NBA games across a growing number of streaming services like Peacock and Amazon Prime, in addition to traditional cable. What was once supposed to save consumers money has had the opposite effect, as fans now need multiple subscriptions to follow their teams, often paying more than they did for a single cable package. The hosts argue that hardworking people are getting “screwed out of their money” to watch the sports they love. This fragmentation is a legitimate concern that the league office appears to be shrugging off in favor of securing lucrative media deals.
3. The NBA Is Accused of Devaluing the On-Court Product
There is a growing perception that the NBA is becoming a “Twitter league,” more focused on 30-second clips, transaction rumors, and debate-show arguments than the game itself. The hosts contend that the league office and its media partners are complicit in this shift, devaluing the actual on-court product. By encouraging fans to watch highlights instead of full games, the league seems content with a more passive form of fan engagement. This strategy is viewed as a mistake, as the league’s primary revenue still comes from media rights deals predicated on the value of live games, which are supported by fans who actively watch and care about them.
4. New “Heave Rule” Aims to Encourage End-of-Quarter Shots
The NBA Board of Governors has approved a new rule for the 2025-26 season designed to incentivize players to take end-of-quarter heaves. Under the new rule, an unsuccessful shot launched from at least 36 feet away within the last three seconds of the first three quarters will be recorded as a team field goal attempt, not an individual one. This change is a direct response to players intentionally holding the ball or waiting until after the buzzer to shoot to avoid a negative impact on their personal field goal percentage. This statistic can be tied to contract incentives, and the league hopes this rule change will bring back a fun and potentially game-altering play.
5. The “Heave Rule” Is Criticized for “Enabling Loser Behavior”
While the new rule is intended to promote exciting plays, the podcast hosts strongly criticized it as “enabling loser behavior.” The argument is that players who prioritize their personal statistics over a low-risk, high-reward opportunity to score for their team are demonstrating a poor mindset. Rather than changing the rules to accommodate this behavior, the hosts suggest the league should have punished it with fines. By bending to the players’ statistical concerns, the NBA is seen as validating a selfish approach that rejects a fun aspect of the game and a genuine winning play, further disconnecting players from the fan experience.
6. NBA Investigates Clippers for Salary Cap Circumvention
A significant cloud hanging over the league is the ongoing investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers and star forward Kawhi Leonard for alleged salary cap circumvention. First reported by Pablo Torre, the allegations center on an endorsement deal Leonard received that may have been a way for the team to pay him outside the confines of the salary cap. The company involved, Aspiration, was also a team sponsor, and Clippers owner Steve Ballmer was a major investor. The situation has raised serious questions about the legitimacy of contracts and could have wide-ranging implications, with the speakers noting that other teams, like the New York Knicks, could face similar scrutiny.
7. Details Emerge on the Alleged Kawhi Leonard Payment Scheme
The investigation’s specifics are damning. A limited partner with the Clippers, Dennis J. Wong, reportedly invested $1.99 million into the now-bankrupt company, Aspiration, just nine days before Aspiration made a $1.75 million payment to Kawhi Leonard. This payment was part of a larger $28 million endorsement deal Leonard agreed to in April 2022, months after Clippers owner Steve Ballmer had invested $50 million in Aspiration. While Ballmer has denied wrongdoing, the close timing of the investments and payments has created a “damning paper trail” that suggests a coordinated effort to provide Leonard with undeclared income.
8. Investigation Threatens League’s Competitive Fairness
The Clippers scandal threatens the NBA’s competitive balance, particularly for small-market teams. If a wealthy owner like Steve Ballmer, who is richer than the next ten owners combined, can use outside money to circumvent the salary cap, it creates a fundamentally unfair advantage. This reinforces a “big bank, takes little bank” mentality that small markets already fear. The hosts pointed to the precedent set in the late 1990s when the Minnesota Timberwolves were docked five first-round picks for a similar circumvention scheme involving Joe Smith. Such a harsh penalty could be possible here if the league is willing to fully pursue the facts.
9. Scrutiny Mounts on Commissioner Adam Silver’s Leadership
Adam Silver’s tenure as commissioner is under a microscope, particularly his handling of the Clippers investigation. His public statement that the “burden of proof is on the league” was interpreted by the hosts as a hands-off approach and a sign that he may be looking for reasons not to punish the Clippers severely. His leadership style was contrasted with that of his predecessor, David Stern, who was perceived as having a “more stern hand” on issues like player rest and trade demands. While Silver has been praised for ousting racist owners, his overall impact on the health of basketball is being questioned amid declining ratings and player-centric controversies.
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Transcript
NOTE: This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and could contain misspellings and errors.
Ethan Sands: Foreign what up Cavs Nation? I’m your host Ethan Sands and I’m back with another episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast. And joining me Today, Jimmy Watkins, cleveland.com’s columnist. We’re going to get into what’s going on around the NBA as a whole. Jimmy, I don’t know if you’ve been keeping up to date on social media with all the Brown stuff going on. I know keeping up with NBA stuff can be a stretch, but Adam Silver is kind of digging himself a hole here. In a recent interview he talked about the rising cost to watch a season of NBA games. As a fan and considering that all games are on either cable or streaming services, you he said that there are a bunch of games that will go on free broadcast TV and that fans can also consume the league in other ways beside watching the game. Noting that the NBA is a highlight driven league. I think this is a bad look for Adam Silver. I think this is a bad look for the NBA. We talk about the WNBA getting gaining traction and also having unrivaled kind of gaining traction. What are your initial thoughts on the conversation that was had with Adam Silver? And we’ll get into the different rules he’s trying to change to get the people to watch more games. As it is a little bit later.
Jimmy Watkins: Two thoughts in my head. One is cav specific, although it could be viewed as any fan base but for, for, for the people who come here for the Cavs, I mean it’s just a slap in the face to your fans, to your viewers. The train of conversation here at the Board of Governors press conference was people were asking, and rightfully so, about sorry Adam, you got games on Peacock, Amazon Prime. I’m not even going to try to name all the streaming services because I can’t keep, I can’t keep straight. I already, we see, haven’t started yet. I can’t even keep it straight. But trust me, there are many of them. So what are you doing about this to make this more accessible to fans? I think one of the few things we can all agree on as a society is that it has become too expensive to watch ball ticket prices go up every year. Streaming services that were originally supposed to save us from exorbitant cable prices, well now we’re paying more for all the different streaming services we need to watch sports than we were paid for cable. People, hardworking people are getting screwed out of their money. It’s nonsense. It’s a legitimate question to the commissioner of the league and he just shrugs it off and Says, yeah, go watch it on YouTube. Watch the highlights. Like what, what are you saying? That’s true. Basketball is a highlight driven sport. I would contend the WNBA is also a highlight driven league. But what should fans do because of our, our greedy grubby hands are reaching for more money? What should they do about this? Engage with our sport passively. No, wrong answer. Wrong answer. And I think this just speaks to on a bigger picture level, the way the league office thinks right now. Every time the commissioner speaks, I become less and less convinced that he loves basketball that much. Like there’s just no way that that could be your your take. The way they are devaluing the actual product, the way their media partners discuss this sport. Like you know you can do something about that, right? You hate all these takey, yelly, debatey, gas baggy conversations. Well, the NBA can look at their partners and say, hey, why don’t we get up on the board a little bit more. Why don’t you give us a little more of a dose of Tim Legler And I love Tim Leger’s. I’m the number one announcing team at ESPN now. I love that. I love that. I liked Doris Part two, by the way. I thought Doris Burke got too much flack. But the NBA has become a Twitter leak, a 32 seconds or less league, a scrolling league. And I think they’re okay with that. And I just think that’s a mistake. At the end of the day, the bri, the basketball related income, which is the pie from which players get paid and where team owners get their, their salary cap spending money is still mostly based on your media rights deals. Maybe, maybe. Seems like the NBA is betting on this being the case. In the next 10, 15, 20 years that will change. But I mean we’re all still waiting for someone to find the right way to monetize social media to that degree. I just think this is incredibly tone deaf from a commissioner who already has a ratings issue, whether he wants to engage with it or not. It seems like not. And the NBA is cool cashing in on these streaming deals at the expense of the fans. I think we need a reminder here. The fans drive this boat. The reason why there is so much money in these sports, the reason why we get to scoff every off season that I’m sorry, this role player just got how much money a year is because people love this game and are willing to engage with it actively and they love watching the games. And yeah, the highlights are cool, but those that’s not where your bread is butter. It’s not for Adam Silver to dismiss the very real cost concerns. You’re pricing out the people who care the most, everyday people who have to who need chunks out of their paycheck to go to these games. That just sucks.
Ethan Sands: I also just think it’s really funny that like this is coming from a commissioner that has tried to advocate for like new styles to get the people more engaged with the season. Like we need the in season tournament. You know, hey, you see what they’re doing over in soccer leagues with the tournament style in season tournaments we’re going to do that and oh, also we’re going to smack a heap of money on in front of everybody. Speaking of the role players that you were mentioning, Jimmy from, for the two way guys that are barely getting paid pennies on the dollar, hey, here’s $500,000 in front of your face if you actually try during the regular season, right? And now we’re coming up with new rules even on top of that for players to try and actually just do stuff that looks cool, that is fun, that ends in buzzer beaters, right? Like the new heave rule that the NBA is instating for the 2025, 2026 season. It’s something that they’ve been testing since summer league in Vegas in July. The league’s board of the governor’s meeting kind of finalized this last week and so unsuccessful end of quarter he’s will now be recorded as a missed field goal attempt for the team, not the player under this new rule, which means that any shot launched within the last three seconds on the first three quarters from at least 36ft away and on a play that begins in the backcourt will be counted as a team attempt only. Also, putting all these stipulations on this is going to make it more interesting when the season itself comes down to it. But obviously this is kind of a ploy for players that are trying to get their incentives hit when it comes to field goal percentage, 3 point percentage on their contract at the end of the season. We’ve seen multiple players not throw end of buzzer, end of quarter shots up because of these things or they’ll deliberately wait for the buzzer to go off, then throw it as a joke just for fun. Right? But I do think that there’s an interesting telltale sign of Adam Silver trying different things and then kind of going back on his word and being like, oh well, you can just consume this in highlights because that’s kind of the league we’re driving, right? Because the in season Tournament highlights, buzzer beaters highlights. I don’t know. Maybe he’s been leading us to this path the whole time. Jimmy.
Jimmy Watkins: What he’s doing right with this rule change is he is enabling loser behavior. So let me put it this way. Those who are engaging with the NBA passively the way Adam Silver incentivizes them to do now, though it should be noted that with the addition of NBC that NBA will have more network television games this year, as Adam Silver also noted. So you, you know, that’s just basic cable you can watch on NBC, you can watch on abc. Great, awesome. Overdue I would argue. And then, oh, by the way, you’re also going to have to pay for Peacock. I digress. But what’s happening here is that over. In recent years, NBA players at the end of quarters have been intentionally waiting until a half second after the buzzer to shoot a long shot that is unlikely to go in. The only reason that you can infer them doing this is that so that they can say a ding on their vehicle percentage. Now I understand some people have. There’s minutiae in contracts. Sometimes your earnings can be altered by certain statistics. Cool, whatever. If you do this, if you have ever done this, you are a loser in that moment. I want to be that as clear as possible. Not only is this a super fun shot that you get to shoot that you shoot a ton of. How many times when you’re a kid in an empty gym do you count down from five and throw a half court heave up there trying to hit a buzzer beater? Those are cool. They can swing out impact on the game if you win. If you win or lose by three points and someone made a half court heave during that game. Indirectly, obviously. Lot lot of stuff, A lot of plays in the game, none more important than the other. But without that heave you don’t win. So I would prefer fines for this type of behavior. I just think it’s dumb and it’s a bad look for the league. And there are already like the NBA’s already have this perception that professional athletes in general, but the NBA players are some of the most exorbitantly paid, that they’re fat cats, that they’re a little too comfortable. There’s a disengagement between the average, the average Joe who loves NBA superstar X and said NBA Superstar X. And this is not just a superstar problem. A lot of different players across the spectrum do this. But this is just like you really, you care so much. You’re caring so much about stats that you’re not even willing to try to make an obvious winning play that is super fun. And for the NBA to enable this, to bend to this kind of behavior, I just hate it. I really, really hate it. And it will achieve its intended outcome. But I also maybe this is too cynical. You know where my brain goes, what if we’re now waiting until three seconds intentionally and shooting further, thus lowering the percentage chance that you make a shot to do the same thing? I hope that doesn’t happen. I don’t think that would happen in many cases. I’m trying to think of the exact scenario where it could, but I’m not ruling it out because I’ve already. You would think, oh, that’s crazy. No one would be that concerned. I would argue it’s we’re already past crazy. We’re already past crazy. When you reject fun and you reject an opportunity to score with with really no, no risk of downside except a slight ding to your field goal percentage, I think we’re already past crazy.
Ethan Sands: And unfortunately for Adam Silver, this is not the biggest thing on his plate currently with the investigations going around the NBA with the entire Kawhi Leonard situation. So not only are you getting flack for changing the rules of the NBA to allow players who are not trying to make winning plays feel like they are empowered to do so, now you also have players around the league questioning what money is legit and what money is not, because Kawhi Leonard, for those who aren’t unaware, is under investigation under the NBA for getting endorsement money that kind of went around his contract from the Los Angeles Clippers. This was first reported by Pablo Torre on his podcast, and ESPN has now ran with it. And the NBA is now in investigation mode to find out what is truly going on in this scenario. And the scariest part about this might be the fact that Jalen Brunson could be next, depending on what comes out. Because of what Pablo Toure has kind of alluded to with Jalen Brunson taking that, what, $130 million pay cut to allow for his other teammates, OG Adenobi, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges to come to the New York Knicks. Jimmy, the NBA is in some deep water right now. What do you think about both of these scenarios, especially just the reporting being done by Pablo Torre about this and how long it’s taken for this to come out? One. But two, just the entire situation surrounding Kawhi Leonard, someone who was always like, oh yeah, I don’t really have to say too much. I just show up and go about my business. Well, in this scenario you literally didn’t have to show up, you just got paid.
Jimmy Watkins: I think this is a huge problem for the league. We already have this idea in our heads, teams, players, fans, coaches, that this is a big bank take, little bank kind of sport. We’re basically operating under a hard cap right now. Maybe that, that’s a, that’s changing slowly. We’ll see. I still think people are going to want to go to the Lakers, people are going to want to go to the Knicks, etc. But we already have this perception that small market teams are at a disadvantage. And now the richest owner in the league is being accused of cap circumvention bank.
Jimmy Watkins: Outside salary cap to keep him around. Not to get. Initially, although there was a 2019 NBA investigation into the signing of Kawhi by the Clippers, a lot of teams were complaining about that. And I think particularly the Toronto Raptors who lost Kawhi, were interested in that. I think the Toronto Raptors remain extremely interested in this investigation. That Toronto Star published a story about Kawhi’s acting agent at the time who was just his uncle who’s not a certified agent. We changed rules in the MBA around agent certification because of Uncle Dennis. The reports are that pretty much exactly what the Clippers are accused of giving Kawhi. Here is what Uncle Dennis was asking the Raptors for. And the Raptors said, hey man, that breaks the rules. Can’t have that. But in a world where we already have a big bank, takes a little bank mentality. All the, all the small market teams, Cleveland fans know this, this fan base has a little brother mentality when it comes to that stuff. Because over and over and over again, teams like the Yankees, teams like the Knicks have been using their either deeper pockets in baseball’s case, or media market size or perception of their city to lure players away. Donovan Mitchell to New York Knicks owners. That was real stress for the spam base going into his summer extension negotiations. Right. Like this is a real thing, real, a real fear that exists. And now you have the perception that it’s unfair potentially. I mean, if the New York Knicks are involved in this, that would be one of the worst case scenarios for the NBA. I mean, the Clippers, it’s kind of like who wants to play for the Clippers, you know? Right. That fear doesn’t necessarily exist with those teams. But when Steve Bomber himself is richer than like, I forget what the exact. But Steve Ballmer is richer than like the next 10 richest NBA owners put together this dude, you know, was CEO of Microsoft. He’s held a lot of those stock shares over the years. He is a billionaire. A bunch of times over when most of the league is over here worried about how are we going to make it under the second apron. And Steve Ballmer’s over here saying yeah, screw your salary cap, I’m rich. That’s not good. That’s a competition fairness problem. That’s a, that’s something that needs to get looked at. It’s a league optics problem. Why didn’t you understand this by the way? The company accused of being involved in this, Steve, basically Steve Ballmer paying Kawaii through this company called Aspiration that is now being investigated as a Ponzi scheme. It sounds like was the Clippers team sponsor, like their logo was on the back of the seats. So it’s a really bad look for the NBA if they didn’t know that. Clearly you need a better vetting process for your sponsors if that’s what ended up happening. Which brings me to is the NBA actually incentivized to find what really happened here? And you can say the NBA has hired an independent investigation arm to look into this. But most legal investigations aren’t independent. A lot of league offices are made up of lawyers. And who do lawyers call when they need investigations? They call lawyers. They know. So I would not be surprised given like, I mean Pablo has uncovered a pretty damning paper trail. I think clearly something needs to happen. My opinion with the Clippers here, but I think Adam Silver is going into this investigation looking for reasons he has. He said at the Board of Governors press conference that the burden of proof is on the league that like the Clippers are innocent until proven guilty. This ain’t a court of law. This is a violation of a collectively bargained contract. And in the collective bargaining agreement it states that circumstantial evidence is enough to prove cap circumvention. But it also says a number of other jargony things that basically says Adam Silver is the judge, jury and executioner here. So the NBA is going to find out as much as Adam Silver wants to find out. And I think that I, I really think that he’s looking for reasons to not punish the Clippers because of just how bad it would look for the league if I don’t know, contract needs to be terminated or know a multiple of 3, 4, 5 first round picks have to be docked. By the way, we have precedent here. Back in the late 90s, early 2000s, former number one overall pick Joe Smith, who played with for the Cavs for a while, signed with Timberwolves on a a team friendly deal with the promise that the Timberwolves would then pay him more later. And they Timberwolves were dumb enough to to have that in writing. So there was no way around that. And the Timberwolves contract contract was voided with Joe Smith and the Timberwolves were docked five first round picks which was later appealed down to three. But to me that’s the kind of that’s the kind of punishment that could be possible here if the NBA is willing to look at the facts of this case.
Ethan Sands: So let’s get into more of the specifics on this. Jimmy, just because you went in depth there and I want to keep giving our listeners more information if they are not aware of this already so A limited partner with the LA Clippers reportedly sent nearly $2 million to a now bankrupt company that allegedly gave Kawhi Leonard an endorsement deal for a no show job less than 10 days before the star forward was paid $1.75 million by the company. Company aspiration for reportedly agreed to a $28 million endorsement deal with Kawhi Leonard in 2021. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer invested $50 million through his personal LLC in September 2021 and the Clippers announced a $3 million partnership with Aspiration two weeks later. It was also reported that Kawhi Lender then agreed to a four year, $28 million endorsement deal in April 2022, nine months after he resigned with the Clippers. A couple of weeks ago it was reported that Dennis J. Wong, a Clippers limited partner, invested 1.99 million in Aspiration nine days before the company made a $1.75 million payment to Kawhi Leonard. The payment was late, according to a payment schedule, as the company was reportedly having financial troubles before ultimately declaring for bankruptcy. This was years ago, but this news came out earlier this month. A couple of weeks ago, Adam Silver said it would be up to the NBA to prove wrongdoing by the Clipper saying, quote, I think as with any process that requires a fundamental sense of fairness, the burden should be on the party that is in essence bringing those charges. So are you not the NBA commissioner and are you not handling this like hands on? Is the NBA league a different entity than the commissioner? Are you not helping run this investigation? Why does it feel like he’s trying to be so hands off on this situation? Jimmy? It’s like I’m trying to wipe my hands of this. And also Steve Ballmer told ESPN on September 4 that the allegations have not been true. But what’s most important to me is we’ve been doing the right thing in all those interactions. You know, Kawhi’s business is Kawhi’s business, but we’ve always done the right thing. Sounds like something somebody would say if they weren’t doing the right things. But Jimmy, I, I just wanted to end with this question. Adam Silver has been the commissioner of the NBA since 2014. What are some of the most surprising things that Adam Silver has changed or done that you haven’t liked since he’s become the commissioner? And is this coming season like an eye opener for everybody? Because we talk about the Cavs next two seasons. I’m talking about the NBA and the NBA commissioner over the next two years or even just this year alone, with all of the things that could come out about Kawhi Leonard and then again about Jalen Brunson.
Jimmy Watkins: I mean, Adam Silver has presided over one of the rockier tenures in the NBA recently. We have these investigations, we have the overall ratings drop. He still negotiated an excellent media rights deal, which at the end of the day is kind of. His job is to make sure that everyone’s got as much money as possible. So tip your cap to that. But there’s been a lot of complaints about the product, about injuries. The case against 82 games I think grows louder every day. But the appetite for the NBA to potentially, potentially lose money as an inventory sport hasn’t changed. There’s zero appetite for that. That’s. That’s pretty much the rub there. And by, oh, by the way, Ethan, Steve Ballmer is the guy that, of course, he bought the team. But in, in a long story short, you could say that Adam Silver’s commissionership has been defined so far by Clippers at ownership because on the front end, Adam Silver earned a ton of praise for getting former Clippers owner and total racist dunderhead Donald Sterling out of here. Ban him for life. Who replaced Donald Sterling? Steve Ballmer. And now Steve Ballmer is in hot, hot water. So at the end of the day, his job is to make the owner’s money. He’s. The owners are kind of his boss. Another reason, by the way, that I think Adam Silver will be looking for reasons to not push, punish Steve Palmer or punish him as lightly as possible in this investigation. So in terms of securing the bag, he’s done all right. The long term bag health, I have questions about. But in the here and now, just signed the biggest mighty Meteorite steel in league history. Can’t, can’t help the tip your cap for that one. Especially given again that fewer people are watching the games and you get more money. I don’t know. I don’t know how the, the networks who are paying these deals are rationalizing that in their heads. But I digress. But in terms of health of basketball, no, he gives thumbs down. I’ve not been a fan to this point of his tenure.
Ethan Sands: And so just to go into that point, Jimmy, a little bit about what the backlash could be like. Under the circumvention rules of the NBA’s 2023 collective bargaining agreement, teams can be punished by for circumventing the salary cap. Penalties can include fines up $7.5 million, direct forfeiture of draft picks. As you mentioned in past NBA history, Jimmy, voiding any player contract and a suspension of up to a year for any team personnel found to have engaged in such a violation. Not good for anybody involved, especially when it comes to Kawhi Leonard and what that could mean for him in his NBA career. Especially after we heard that he was working out after the NBA playoffs were continuing to go. Just so he, his body would be ramped up and ready to be playing that long even after not playing a whole lot this past season. But that’s neither here nor there. Jimmy, I, I know you kind of mentioned the, the commissioner, Adam Silver and past commissioners as well. A lot of flack was given to David Stern on his way out as well. Do you compare the two? Adam Silver and David Stern when it comes to running the NBA, I think.
Jimmy Watkins: David Stern is one of the best commissioners in sports history. Toward the end, as will happen to all of us, David Stern got a little cranky and a little zany in his old age, right? But he also presided over. David Stern came in the NBA in 1984. We were not far removed from the NBA Finals beyond tape delay when that happened. Now obviously it helped to have Magic Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan coming to the league. And I think Larry, Larry and Michael Magic were already in the league when David Stern took over. Michael, 84 might have actually been his draft year. But it helps. But the way David Stern marketed superstars, the waters that he steered this league through. The NBA people of today owe David Stern a good deal. I also think David Stern would have had a. A more stern hand on some of the issues that are close to NBA fans hearts these days. DMP rest David Stern was hitting the spurs with big fines for rest of guys during national TV games. I wonder how temper tantrum trade request era would have unfolded under David Stern. I suspect more suspensions, I suspect more fines. Adam Silver’s kind of just letting that go. Maybe he thinks it’s not within the league purview to deal with that stuff. Maybe that should be team issues. I think that’s weak leadership on the commissioner’s part, but it’s a plausible defense of him. Or maybe, and I think this might be more the case, maybe Adam Silver just likes the player movement and the shams bonds and the engagement that the league gets during the off season, during transaction season. I think that’s part of it. I think Adam Silver again has very, he has many progressive views on players mental health. And we got Donald Sterling up out of here, we got Robert Sarver, the Phoenix owner up out of here. And the, you know, David Stern’s the commissioner. He’s got longer relationships with those guys sometimes. Oftentimes ownership is the old boys club and maybe that would have been more, more complicated for a commissioner who had longer standing relationships with those guys. So I’m not saying Adam Silver has never done a good thing for the league. I think the overall health of the league is in a worse place. I mean, I think that it’s a challenging time. I’ll give you that as well. To be the commissioner of a, of an inventory sport when there’s never been more competition for attention span in our lifetimes. Right. But you got to deal with work with the cards that you’re dealt. I think Adam Silver has misplayed a couple of hands.
Ethan Sands: I think that’s well said. I think that’s well said, Jimmy. And this is definitely a difficult time for the NBA because everybody’s looking for places to place blame and also reason for things going the way that they are. Right. And understanding why the views are down, why the NBA players aren’t trying during the all star game, why the players aren’t trying during the regular season. Right. And I’m not saying that everything that Adam Silver has done has been bad. That’s not what I’m saying because I, I think the in season tournament actually is a good thing because I think it’s fun. I think it adds competitive nature and also it incentivizes some of the two way players are. Some of the players at the bottom of the rotation end up bench guys that don’t get those kind of contracts to have a more lucrative offer. And it allows players like LeBron James to try and help those guys out. We know that was one of the main goals for LeBron when they won the in season tournament the first year. And I think it’s grown over the last couple of seasons and it’s going to continue to grow. But I do think that there is a point where you start overdoing it as a commissioner. You start looking at ways to replicate or reinvent the wheel when it’s not all that hard, like unrivaled. A league that is up and coming, that I’ve said already on this podcast already is doing a one on one tournament, right? You see how much money they’ve been making. You see how much they’ve grown in just one year of existence, right? Do that. Kevin Durant is saying he played for a million dollars for one on one, right? That should be chump change for the billionaires around the league, right? For the NBA to put that up, showcase, who is competitive enough, who is ready enough to play in a one on one tournament in the All Star Game doesn’t sound hard to me. Right? And obviously the streaming services thing is difficult, but to me there’s so many streaming services, it feels like we’re going to get to the point where they’re just all going to combine at one point. And you know what we’re going to call it? Cable. This is going to come full circle and people are going to recognize the beauty that was just having a surf channel and being able to pay for one network and having so many different options. I feel like an old man saying all this because like cable, cable isn’t that old. It’s not gone. There’s still people that buy cable, but like that’s not today’s age. And yet it feels like it could end up being that. At the end of the day when this is all said and done, it’s already happening.
Jimmy Watkins: By the way, I’m in a never ending war against the streaming services. I’m determined not to pay the streaming services. If you want to screw me, I’ll screw you right back. And I’ll create a thousand Gmails to get a bunch of free trials from you. Um, as, as I was doing that last night to watch Monday Night Football, I learned that Hulu Live sports is also Hulu Live Sports with Disney plus with ESPN with add on. You could have add ons for hbo and it’s just like, can we, can we just simplify this again? Because right before it’s gonna get simplified and then it’ll be super duper expensive and then we’ll go, ooh, I don’t like this. And then eventually the price will drop. This is just gonna be a cycle, I think for the rest of our lives. But right now it’s like to. I think if you buy, I don’t know if you’re, if you have a YouTube TV or a Hulu, whatever live sports account and one other streaming service, maybe two other streaming services, you’re already paying more than you paid for cable. It’s like, what did we do this all for?
Ethan Sands: Call me a Nepo baby. As. As long as I can say that I’m traveling on my my parents Netflix account or Hulu or Disney plus because there’s more accounts that are or more streaming services that are starting to crack down on that sharing of location and sharing stuff. Like I’m going to use that. I’m traveling every single time. Send me the code. I’m on the road. It is ridiculous how they are trying to weasel money out of people just so we can get the coverage that we were getting Through Dish or DirecTV or whatever cable company you used to have back in the day. It’s saddening to me. I think these streaming services are getting a little bit out of hand and it’s because of the sports circle and the sports fear of today. And I’m interested to find out what’s going to happen because it’s not just basketball, but the NFL just had a game that was strictly on YouTube. Why? Don’t know. I mean the MLB blackouts across the board. So money, money, money, money, money, money. I think this is a very nuanced conversation that is has the NBA commissioner tied up in knots right now, especially dealing with the Kawhi Leonard situation. Trying to create new rules to figure out what is going to keep people engaged while watching the game. Not changing the channel, turning to a different streaming platform to watch a different game. I just think it’s an interesting time for the league and it’s a dangerous one as well. Depending on how things shake out and what happens with this Kawhi Leonard situation. And then again, what could be coming in the woodworks next. But we gotta wait and see what happens during this 2025, 2026 season and potentially how long Kawhi is gonna be out or if he’s even found guilty or if the Clippers are found guilty in this sense. But with all that being said, that’ll wrap up today’s episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast. But remember to become a KAZ insider and interact with Chris, me and Jimmy by subscribing to Subtext. This is where you can Send in your questions for our weekly hey Chris episodes and we will answer all subtext questions even if Chris is not on the show. So sign up for a 14 day free trial trial. Or visit cleveland.comcavs and click on the blue bar at the top of the page. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. All you have to do is text the word stop. It’s easy, but we can tell you that the people who sign up stick around because this is the best way to get insider coverage on the Cavs from me, Chris and Jimmy. This isn’t just our podcast, it’s your podcast. And the only way to have your voice heard is through subtext. Y’ all be safe. We out.