The NBA’s decision not to suspend Draymond Green for his kick to the groin of Steven Adams in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals was a controversial one. The league reviewed video evidence and interviewed people involved and determined the kick was not intentional, but upgraded it from a Flagrant 1 to a Flagrant 2, giving Green enough flagrant foul points that his next flagrant foul of any kind will result in a suspension.
The lack of a suspension in this case, though, led to questioning from fans about the NBA’s motivations, something commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged on Sunday in an ESPN radio interview. Silver took exception to the idea lobbed at the league by some fans that they would prefer the Warriors to advance to the Finals over the Thunder, and reiterated (rightly) that that isn’t a motivation for the NBA.
Here’s a transcription of Silver’s comments, via the Bay Area News Group:Silver acknowledged he has heard the conspiracy theory that the league prefers Golden State reach the Finals instead of Oklahoma City.
“I hear it, and it’s the most sensitive issue for me, and it goes to the core integrity of the league and frankly to my integrity,” Silver said.
“Even from a business standpoint, it would be impossible to predict which Finals would have a greater following. It depends on how many games, how close the games are. I can only thus sort of swear to the world that we do the best we can and that we don’t prefer one market or one team over another.”The truth is, as popular as the Warriors are, there’s no bad matchup here for the league in terms of ratings. If the Warriors win on Monday, the Finals will be a rematch of last year as Golden State tries to cap off their record-setting regular season with a second straight title against a version of the Cavs with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving healthy, unlike last season. If the Thunder win, the league gets a second Finals duel between LeBron James and Kevin Durant, which hasn’t happened since 2012, when James was in Miami. The Warriors play in a bigger market than the Thunder, but market size doesn’t matter nearly as much as it used to. James and Durant do just fine, popularity-wise, playing in the 18th and 43rd largest media markets in the United States, respectively. A lot of people are going to watch the Finals no matter which team wins the Western Conference Finals. And Silver knows that.