Adam Silver Addresses 'Small Market Teams' Amid Pacers vs Thunder NBA Finals
Adam Silver Addresses 'Small Market Teams' Amid Pacers vs Thunder NBA Finals originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
This month, the NBA will crown its seventh different champion in as many years.
It is a stretch that began in 2019, when the Toronto Raptors upended the Golden State Warriors to win their first-ever title; the Denver Nuggets joined them as first-time champs in 2023.
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The Boston Celtics (in 2024) and the Los Angeles Lakers (in 2020) also added to their title-rich histories during this span, while the Warriors claimed the 2022 championship one year after the Milwaukee Bucks ended a 50-year wait for a title.
When the Finals tip off in Oklahoma City on Thursday night, the Thunder franchise will seek its first championship since its 2008 relocation from Seattle.
The underdog Indiana Pacers are chasing their first NBA championship, having won three ABA titles before the two leagues merged in 1976.
The variety among recent champions has been interpreted as the end of the NBA's "superteam" era. Though traditional powers in Boston and Los Angeles have reached and won the Finals in recent years, "small market" teams are enjoying more sustained success than ever before.
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According to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, this is the byproduct of a very intentional process.
"If we were going into a Super Bowl and it was Packers vs. Steelers, you guys would celebrate that," Silver said Wednesday on "Breakfast Ball." "People wouldn't talk about Pittsburgh being a small market. It's been intentional to create a CBA that allows more teams to compete."
In a league well known for dynastic championship runs, Silver believes the most recent collective bargaining agreements have made parity the name of the game in the NBA. And last year, the league signed off on an 11-year broadcast rights package with Amazon, Comcast and Disney – an agreement that is worth an estimated $76 billion.
In short, Silver is not worried about low ratings, especially as the league's most recent playoff game was this spring's most-viewed. The Pacers-Thunder matchup proves to him that the NBA is in a healthy place.
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"At the end of the day, we are a league of relatively small markets," Silver said. "The goal is to have a league where every team is in position to compete."
Related: Shaquille O'Neal Predicts Winner of Pacers-Thunder NBA Finals
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jun 4, 2025, where it first appeared.
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