Silver concerned load management could hurt NBA financially

The NBA surpassed $10 billion in revenue this past season for the first time, something Commissioner Adam Silver was pleased to talk about Tuesday.

But Silver, holding a state-of-the-league news conference at the Encore, also said he has concerns about issues that could harm the league, among those player availability for games.

That’s an especially sensitive topic as the NBA negotiates streaming rights. Silver said he has spoken with players and teams about it. He pointed out that as opposed to cable and satellite bundling packages, the a la carte nature of streaming could result in less revenue if key players aren’t available for games.

“I’m all in favor of guaranteed contracts, but it may be that on top of your typical guaranteed contracts, some incremental money should be based on number of games played and results of those games,” Silver said. “That’s how most industries work, where there are financial incentives even among highly paid executives for performance.”

The concept of load management is not popular with fans, who prefer to see the top players suit up when healthy. But many players take occasional games off to better make it through the grind of an 82-game regular season and the lengthy postseason.

Silver said the topic is worthy of discussion as the league and National Basketball Players Association begins to engage in talks about the next collective bargaining agreement. The current CBA expires in 2024.

“I’m not looking to shorten the season, but it’s a conversation we should all have,” Silver said. “What’s optimal in terms of the number of games on a player’s body? Let’s be realistic about that.”

Silver also wants to address with the union the issue of star players asking to be traded before their contracts expire. Kevin Durant is the most high-profile player to recently request a trade, telling the Nets two weeks ago he wanted out of Brooklyn.

“This needs to be a two-way street,” Silver said. “Teams provide enormous securities and guarantees to players, and the expectation in return is they’ll 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.”

With all 30 clubs in Las Vegas because of the NBA Summer League, the league’s owners met Tuesday. They voted to penalize teams for taking an intentional foul to prevent a transition basket and make the play-in tournament for the playoffs a permanent part of the schedule.

If a player is fouled to prevent a transition basket, a free throw will be awarded as well as possession of the ball.

The play-in tournament, in effect for the past two seasons on a trial basis, was fully adopted. Play-in games, for teams that finish seventh through 10th in each conference, will be held April 11 to 14. Two teams from each conference will emerge as the seventh and eighth seeds when the playoffs begin April 15.

Also, the NBA and the union announced about 115 former American Basketball Association players who appeared in at least three seasons will receive pension payments. The ABA was a rival league to the NBA before the 1976 merger that added four teams to the NBA.

Contact reporter Mark Anderson at manderson@reviewjournal.com. Follow @markanderson65 on Twitter.