On March 16, 2026, it was announced that the NBA Board of Governors were planning to vote on exploring the idea of expansion on March 23-24, 2026. The expected center focus of expansion are Las Vegas, who have been an entertainment mecca for years that has decided to get into the sports world, and Seattle, who has been a fan favorite since the SuperSonics left for Oklahoma City in 2008. I think I speak on behalf of most fans that I am happy and excited for the possibility of expansion actually coming to fruition. But looking in reality, the NBA has lost it's ratings and it's major fan base the past seven or eight years or so and this is an obvious way by the NBA trying to piece it back together by bringing in two new fan bases, but all it does is just put a band aid on a wound that is too big to heal. The NBA needs a change, but the first move they should make is not expansion, it's Adam Silver.

Before getting any further, let's talk about how Adam Silver got here and we got to the position we are now. Silver, a then 30 year old lawyer a few years after graduating from University of Chicago Law School, is hired on to the NBA Front Office in 1992. He served in many roles in the NBA, he was the Senior VP and COO of NBA Entertainment to start, than worked his way to President and COO, he then served as the NBA Chief of Staff and later special assistant to the commissioner until in 2006 when he replaced Russ Granik as the NBA's second ever Deputy Commissioner. He was seen as David Stern's protege as soon as he got the Chief of Staff position and was seen inevitable that he would work his way up to Deputy Commissioner and be in play to replace Stern whenever he thought it was time to retire. The majority of his adult life, all he knew was basketball and how to operate a part of a huge organization so when Stern announced his retirement, it was the easy choice to elevate his second in command.

Before the 2012-13 season, there were rumors that David Stern was fixing hang his coat and retire from the NBA. On October 25, 2012, he announced his plans to retire and then endorsed Silver to replace him. Shortly after, the Board of Governors voted unanimously in favor of Silver and on February 1, 2014, Stern resigned from his role as commissioner and Silver assumed the position immediately. Two months later, Silver had to face what might have been the toughest test he may ever face. There was a video that surfaced and released by TMZ of then Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling making some racist remarks during a conversation with his extramarital girlfriend. Silver acted swiftly and banned him for life in what is seen as the pinnacle of his tenure. Silver fined him and obviously forced him to sell the team by barring him from NBA games, practice facilities, and any other NBA related events or meetings. This was a widespread love by everyone and was Silver was hailed a hero for his decision and swift action.

Now, after the Sterling incident, we have to look at what else he has done. It has now been 12 years since he took over from David Stern and has the sport changed? Yes, it did change a lot and looks a lot different than it did when Stern was commissioner to now. Did it change for the better of the sport? Not really. The sport isn't physical anymore and relies more on three pointers more than ever, we had a huge load management issue that seems to be slowly being fixed, stars trying to join other stars and form their own super teams and try and replicate the Heat's success (the same super team that Stern put the whole NBA in a lockdown because), and now the ratings have been going down and fan interactions have been pretty low.

I don't mind players shooting three pointers, what I do mind is that it feels like most teams focus too much on the three pointer where it is to the point that it gets repetitive and predictable. There is no physicality like there were years ago when I started watching as a fan and there doesn't feel like there is as much grit and grind inside the paint like there used to be. I say all of that and I do enjoy the more spacing there is now and the fact offenses can find holes in someones defense and cut through and get a layup or easy floater and there are teams with physical bigs like the Pistons, Celtics, Hornets, and Spurs all come to mind, I feel like I would rather have more of a diversity of three's and physicality and not one or the other. This something that Silver has acknowledged and has said it is an "easy fix" but has yet to be seen it be fixed. Another one is the load management that was a huge issue in the late 2010's where a player sits out of a game not due to injury but to prevent an injury. Load management seems silly to me and just an excuse not to play. I understand not getting hurt, but everytime you step on the court you are risking the possibility to get hurt. All of this to say is that most of these players who participated heavily in this either are too lazy or don't care about the sport and don't deserve to be paid star worthy money. The NBA has now added a 65 game rule to their awards that is to help avoid players load managing and force them to play as many games possible to avoid being award ineligible, which is also flawed as it also takes out players who got hurt and missed 20+ games due to injury but was having a All-NBA year. I don't think the 65 game rule should be amended, but I am acknowledging the issue and flaw it has.

We also have a big issue that is kinda resolved but has caused more issues. Stars don't want to play against other stars anymore, they want to play with stars. LeBron did that in Miami and teams started following the pattern with LeBron and Kyrie and Kevin Love in Cleveland, Kevin Durant, Curry, Klay, and Draymond in Golden State, James Harden and Dwight.. I mean Chris... I mean Russell.. That revolving door in Houston, Kawhi and Paul George in Los Angeles, LeBron and Anthony Davis in Los Angeles, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and James Harden in Brooklyn. I know I missed a few teams, but instead of teams drafting players and developing and building a super team via draft, they went and acquired already structured players thinking they will eventually form a chemistry and make a run to the playoffs. Very little panned out like that, but it just caused a huge mess at the end of the day. Instead, to combat this, Silver and the NBAPA President CJ McCollum met with each other to form a better CBA and paying method to avoid so many super teams to be acquired via Free Agency. They formed the apron system, which is a good idea but is super flawed as it has totally killed Free Agency with every team scared of losing their player that had a good season then they give him an extension to avoid him going to another team then he doesn't perform to plan and now you are over the second apron paying a role player $30 million dollars and now you have to trade him to Brooklyn or Utah where they have tons of money for a 2032 second round pick. The apron is super flawed and has ruined the fun of Free Agency and the trade deadline is not what it used to be. You are forcing teams to pay more money to keep players, then you force them to trade some of them away because you went over the apron or you have to keep your first round pick which would be pick 30? And then once a team is looking to trade off players to stay under the apron, nobody wants that player cause there is no value to him because he is over paid. The apron is very flawed, I don't see any way to fix it and I do expect there will be teams willing to take it on the chin and stay over the apron as long as it formulates to a championship in the future (cough) Thunder (cough). It is a temporary fix that concludes to no permanent solution.

But then there are some more issues that have arise. I touched on it a second ago, but the unpredictability of a champion. I think having parity is good for the sport, but when you have a new Eastern Conference and Western Conference champion pretty much every year since 2019 becomes tiring and not much point to watch for an average fan. Let's say San Antonio wins this season against New York and then next season both teams lose first round and it's Portland and Cleveland, who's going to watch that? What story line heading into the season makes someone continue to follow it all the way to the Finals? As much as I think there should be parity, I think it is healthy for the NBA to have a familiar face make a deep run or win the Finals to give a reason to continue watching. Look at the March Madness where the main teams fans are watching are Duke, Kansas, and Michigan State because they have built a reputation and fan base and they are always in the tournament and make a deep run to the Sweet Sixteen or Elite Eight at least, which is equivalent to the Conference Finals in the NBA. There needs to be familiarity and reasoning for a average fan to watch and not because it is two small city teams having a chance to win their first title six years in a row. Another issue is the lottery. Because of the CBA, some teams have decided to avoid going over the apron that they will sell their team and purposely tank to get a top pick in the draft and continue this until they form their own super team of lottery picks. This is a cheap and dumb way for a small city team to rebuild a team and build a dynasty similar to Oklahoma City instead of attempting and failing to attract the biggest stars that want out of their current team. This is a stupid decision for most teams as a lot of them will just be back in the same position five years from now, but that one team will make it work and everyone else will try to follow it since it worked once. And here is Adam Silver fussing about tanking even though this is a problem you have caused with the CBA.

We look at this a little more deeper and while the NBA and people in the media question why are people not wanting to watch, not wanting to buy four different streaming devices along with however you can watch local games is that the things I laid out are the main reason. Another reason is that he is quoted in saying that this sport is a highlight league referring that he is not worried about the decline in TV ratings. This season, the ratings was up 19% which is due in part of the games now being showed on two broadcast stations in ABC and NBC and they don't have to pay for anything as long as they have an antenna, and there are games on Prime which NFL fans bought for Thursday Night Football and now need to put it in use in the Winter and Spring. But all of this is a band aid to cover up other mistakes. The band aid is too small for the big gash, it will still bleed eventually. People wonder what Stern would do differently and I would like to think that most, if not everything I mentioned would not be anything we would talk about because the issues would not exist. Stern had the fan first mentality where he had the best interest for the fans and what they want to see, Silver has the best interest for the players and what they want which is why players love him and fans do not. Adam Silver has became too player friendly and has allowed all of this to become an issue because he doesn't want to rub the players the wrong way by putting his foot down. And I haven't even mentioned the All Star Weekend, the In Season Tournament, or the Kawhi situation. Silver was the best person and did the right thing with the Donald Sterling incident but he has the NBA rolling down a steep him.

Thank you for reading this! Please let me know your thoughts and what you think about it. This is something I have thought about for years, but have not put it into words like this until now. Also, I would love to do another article soon and would love an idea. I may make a directory for my previous NBA articles.