FILE – In this May 31, 2018, file photo, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver speaks at a news conference before Game 1 of basketball’s NBA Finals between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers, in Oakland, Calif. A diversity report released shows the NBA continues to lead the way in men’s professional sports in racial and gender hiring practices. The league earned an A+ for racial hiring practices and a B for gender hiring practices for an overall grade of an A. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has received a five-year contract extension, a reward for accomplishments that include rapid growth in the value of franchises and attendance records around the league being set annually.
Board of Governors Chairman Larry Tanenbaum of the Toronto Raptors announced the deal, one that keeps Silver under contract through the 2024 NBA Finals. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Silver, 56, led a very smooth series of negotiations with the NBA players union on the way to a new collective bargaining agreement in 2016 — one where salaries around the league soared thanks to a $24.1 billion, nine-year television and media rights deal that he helped strike with Disney and Turner Sports two years earlier.
Franchise values of the 30 NBA clubs have risen fivefold, from an estimated $12 billion when Silver took over to $60 billion now. This was also the fourth consecutive season where the league set an all-time attendance record, with 22.1 million fans attending games in 2017-18.
This season also marked the launch of the first eSports league — the NBA 2K League, which Silver has raved about.
“From the NBA’s standpoint, this is our fourth league,” he said earlier this year. “Of course we have the NBA, the WNBA and the G League, and now this is the fourth league in our family, and that’s exactly as we’re treating it: one more professional league.”
Silver has been with the NBA since 1992, and became deputy commissioner under David Stern in 2005. When Stern retired on Feb. 1, 2014 after holding the office for 30 years, Silver took over as the fifth commissioner in NBA history.