NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard is closed, addressed expansion plans for Las Vegas and Seattle, discussed the Lakers’ ownership sale, and spoke about the future of a European NBA league and the incoming WNBA commissioner at a news conference Tuesday following the league’s board of governors meeting.
The Clippers case
He called the landmark penalty that included suspending owner Steve Ballmer for a year, fining the Clippers $30 million and stripping the franchise of five future first-round picks part of the league’s core responsibility to enforce rules that everyone agrees to operate under, and said appropriate consequences follow when those rules are violated.
He said he spoke with Leonard, whom the league fined $700,000 without suspending, and that the two agreed to move forward, though Silver declined to share the substance of the conversation. Leonard’s trade to the Toronto Raptors was finalized Monday after months of delay during the investigation.
He declined to commit to returning any of the stripped picks, as former commissioner David Stern eventually did with the Minnesota Timberwolves after a similar cap circumvention case in 2000. He said he does not believe the Clippers have suffered permanent damage but acknowledged this is a setback for the team and for its fans.
He also strongly denied that cap circumvention is widespread across the league, saying he is aware of some slippage around the edges over the years but nothing of this nature.
Expansion
Silver said Las Vegas has generated more active NBA discussion than Seattle, with several groups bidding on a potential franchise. He said next-round bids will come shortly but are not the final step. He called T-Mobile Arena an existing option that would need significant improvements and said some groups have presented plans for a new arena that could support essentially 365-day-a-year activity.
Seattle, he said, has a world-class facility in Climate Pledge Arena but faces a much longer timeline before a team could play there. League officials told ESPN that expansion could involve one city rather than both, or no expansion at all, though the latter appears unlikely. Silver said he wants a final decision by year-end.
The Lakers sale
Silver said Mark Walter, who is under federal investigation for allegedly misusing insurance company funds, was fully vetted before he purchased the Lakers for $10 billion in October and that no red flags were found. Walter agreed to sell the team last month to a group led by Josh Kushner and Bob Iger for $12.5 billion. Silver said he had no prior knowledge of Walter’s intention to sell until the buyers informed him of a handshake deal.
NBA Europe
Silver said the NBA is making progress toward launching a 12-team European league one year from now and wants to integrate with the existing EuroLeague. He said a salary system, aggregated television rights and plans for new arenas remain to be determined. He said he expects the initial product to differ from what the NBA will eventually look like once fully operational.
Portland
Silver said it would be a failure for the NBA if the Trail Blazers left Portland, where negotiations over a new arena have become contentious. Oregon has pledged $365 million with conditions on additional local funding. He said he hopes to lower the temperature in those discussions.
WNBA leadership
Silver said the NBA will hire a search firm to help replace retiring commissioner Cathy Engelbert. He credited record ratings, salary growth and expansion to Engelbert’s tenure while acknowledging her critics among players. He said he expects her replacement to bring their own ideas to a league that continues to grow.
