Adam Silver said that he doesn’t like when players request trades. An issue that will be discussed with the NBPA for the next CBA.
Per CBS Sports,
Reporter: Back in February, you talked about how having stars making trade demands was not necessarily good for the league. Curious when you have Kevin Durant, one of the two or three biggest stars in the league making a trade demand, days before his own four-year extension even kicks in, what’s your response when you see that or what’s your reaction when you see that?
COMMISSIONER ADAM SILVER: My view hasn’t changed. I don’t know whether his — whether he requested a trade or demanded one, frankly.
Look, this needs to be a two-way street. Teams provide enormous security and guarantees to players and the expectation is, in return, they will meet their end of the bargain. I’m realistic that there’s always conversations that are going to go on behind closed doors between players and their representatives and the teams. But we don’t like to see players requesting trades, and we don’t like to see it playing out the way it is.
I mean, ideally, especially as I was just saying in response to the last question, the basketball was fantastic this past season, the playoffs, we had a wonderful Finals. I don’t want to be naïve, but I would love the focus to be on the play on the floor.
And as to what we can do about this issue, again, when a player asks to be moved, it has a ripple effect on a lot of other players, on that player’s team and other teams. So it’s not just potentially the league or the team governors who are impacted by that, but lots of other players as well.
It’s one of those issues that as we move into this collective bargaining cycle, which we are just beginning now, we intend to discuss with our Players Association and see if there are remedies for this. Again, as I said, it will never be the case when players won’t be unhappy in certain situations, but we don’t want to see it playing out the way it is now.
I think it is something where there is mutuality of interests between the players collectively and the league, having more stability. So that’s something we’ll be discussing with the union.
