On April 25, 1962, Adam Silver, an American lawyer and sports executive, was born. He is the National Basketball Association‘s fifth and current commissioner (NBA). He started playing in the NBA in 1992, and before being named deputy commissioner by his predecessor and mentor David Stern in 2006, he served a number of positions there. Silver was chosen to replace Stern as commissioner when Stern retired in 2014.
The league has expanded monetarily and internationally under Silver’s leadership, particularly in China. After Donald Sterling made racial statements, Silver forced Trump to sell the Los Angeles Clippers and eventually permanently barred him from all NBA games and activities. This generated headlines in 2014.
Early Years:
Silver was born into a family of Jewish Americans. His father, Edward Silver, was a senior associate at the law firm Proskauer Rose and a labour law expert who practiced law from 1921 until 2004. Rye, New York, a suburb of New York City in Westchester County, is where Silver was raised. He graduated from Rye High School in 1980.
Silver proceeded to Duke University after high school. He received his Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1984 and was a member of the fraternity Phi Delta Theta. He served as Les AuCoin’s legislative assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1984 to 1985.
Silver worked as a legal assistant for Judge Kimba Wood of the U.S. District Court for a year after graduating from law school. After that, he became an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
NBA Career:
Silver spent eight years as the NBA’s chief operations officer and deputy commissioner before being appointed commissioner. He participated in the development of the WNBA and NBA Development League, the partnership with Turner Broadcasting to handle the NBA’s digital assets, the creation of NBA China, and the bargaining of the league’s last three collective bargaining contracts with the National Basketball Players Association while serving in that capacity.
Previously, Silver served as NBA Entertainment’s president and COO for eight years. Silver has served as the NBA’s chief of staff, senior VP and COO, NBA Entertainment, and special assistant to the commissioner since his 1992 NBA debut. Silver served as an executive producer for the documentary Whatever Happened to Michael Ray? and the IMAX film Michael Jordan to the Max while he was employed at NBA Entertainment. Additionally, he contributed to Like Mike and The Year of the Yao’s production.
Commissioner:
He received David Stern‘s support to succeed David Stern as NBA commissioner on October 25, 2012. Silver received unanimous approval from the NBA owners to succeed Stern on February 1, 2014, the day after he announced his resignation.
On April 25, 2014, TMZ Sports published a video of Donald Sterling, the owner of the Los Angeles Clippers, speaking to his girlfriend and using racial slurs. On April 29, 2014, Silver responded by declaring that Sterling had been permanently barred from the NBA. Silver also assessed Sterling a $2.5 million fine, the maximum permitted by NBA rules.
Silver effectively removed all of Sterling’s power over the Clippers and persuaded owners to vote to remove Sterling as the team’s owner. Sterling was prohibited from going inside any Clippers facilities and from going to any NBA games. One of the harshest penalties ever meted out to a professional sports owner.
In an opinion post for The New York Times on November 13, 2014, Silver declared his support for legalized and regulated sports betting, saying it should be “taken out of the darkness and into the sunlight where it can be effectively monitored and regulated.”
Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey tweeted in favour of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests on October 4, 2019. Later, Morey removed the tweet. Regarding the original tweet, Morey and the NBA each released a statement on October 6; Morey claimed that he never intended for his message to offend anyone, while the NBA called the tweet “regrettable.” The remarks attracted notice and were subsequently met with bipartisan criticism from a number of US leaders.
Honors and Additional Pursuits:
Silver was placed first on Sports Business Journal’s list of the 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business in 2016. In 2015, Silver was honoured as Executive of the Year by the Sports Business Journal. He was also recognized as one of Fortune’s 50 Greatest Leaders and one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People in that same year.
Silver received the Magazine Cover Executive of the Year award in 2014. He holds a seat on Duke University’s Board of Trustees and was given the University of Chicago Law School’s 2016 Distinguished Alumnus Award. The Lustgarten Organization for Pancreatic Cancer Research has him on its board of directors.
Personal Life:
Silver wed interior designer Maggie Grise in 2015. Two girls were born to them in April 2017 and May 2020.
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