Cost-conscious NBA fans struggling to pay mounting subscription fees for the league’s rising number of media partners got another option from commissioner Adam Silver on Wednesday:
Let them watch highlights.
Silver’s suggestion came during a press conference about the league investigation into the Los Angeles Clippers, who are accused of circumventing the salary cap to pay forward Kawhi Leonard millions more than previously known. The Clippers and owner Steve Ballmer have denied any wrongdoing.
Media questions ultimately strayed from that topic. And when asked about the rising costs of watching the NBA under its new 11-year, $76 billion media deal, the 63-year-old Silver told reporters: ‘There’s a huge amount of our content that people can essentially consume for free.’
He was, of course, referring to highlights on social media.
‘And this is very much a highlights-based sport,’ Silver said. ‘So, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, you name it, any service … there’s an enormous amount of content out there, YouTube is another example that is advertising-based that consumers can consume.’
Cost-conscious NBA fans struggling to pay subscription fees for the league’s rising number of media partners got another option from commissioner Adam Silver: Just watch highlights
The public reaction was anything but grateful.
‘Get this man out of my sport,’ one angry fan wrote online.
‘Damn that’s cold bro,’ another added on X.
One person claimed Silver ‘loves the league’ but ‘doesn’t the love sport,’ which they felt: ‘Explains everything.’
Reactions also veered into class war as several critics connected Silver’s attitude with the billionaire class of owners who pay his salary.
‘[I] love how billionaires ruin everything then act like they’re doing us a favor by tossing crumbs from their yacht,’ one fan wrote online.
Silver and the NBA have been criticized in recent years over the regular season, which many fans see as being devalued by expanded playoffs and an in-season tournament, not to mention frequent rest days for star players.
Victor Wembanyama dunks on Cade Cunningham during All-Star weekend in February
Naturally, Silver’s ‘highlights’ comment gave his critics more ammo on that front.
‘Adam Silver finding new ways each year to make the nba regular season more and more irrelevant,’ wrote one critic. ‘A tale as old as time!’
Matt George, a sports anchor for Sacramento’s KXTV, wrote: ‘After working for years to make regular season games matter, you are basically saying they dont (sic) matter enough to watch other than highlights.’
The NBA announced its new 11-year national media rights deal last summer. In addition to renewing its partnership with ESPN/ABC, the NBA also added NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime Video. Fans will still have the option of buying a season-long League Pass for access to all out-of-market games that aren’t appearing on national television.
NBC/Peacock will now take national TV games on Monday, while Prime Video will air Thursday’s nationally televised games.
Meanwhile, TNT is no longer a domestic rights holder, but the network’s popular Inside the NBA studio show will continue to be produced by the cable network and aired on ESPN.
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .