NBA set to have 9th franchise win a title in Adam Silver's 12 seasons as commissioner. Parity reigns
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — In the entirety of David Stern's 30-year tenure as the NBA's commissioner, eight different franchises won a championship.
Adam Silver is in Year 12 of his run overseeing the league — and a ninth different franchise is about to win a title on his watch.
The parity era in the league is not new, and it most certainly lives on this year, with either the Oklahoma City Thunder or the Indiana Pacers set to become NBA champions. The winning team in these NBA Finals will be the seventh different champion in the last seven seasons, a run the likes of which the league has never experienced before.
'We set out to create a system that allowed for more competition around the league,' Silver said Thursday night in his annual news conference before Game 1 of the finals. 'The goal being to have 30 teams all in the position, if well managed, to compete for championships. And that's what we're seeing here.'
In Stern's 30 years, the eight championship-winning franchises were the Los Angeles Lakers (eight times), Chicago (six), San Antonio (four), Boston (three), Miami (three), Detroit (three), Houston (twice) and Dallas (once).
For Silver, the chart looks much different. Golden State has won four titles since he became commissioner, and Milwaukee, Cleveland, Boston, the Lakers, Denver, Toronto and San Antonio have one. Oklahoma City or Indiana will be the next entry on that list.
'David used to joke early on in his tenure as commissioner,' Silver said. 'He said his job was to go back and forth between Boston and L.A. handing out championship trophies.'
And this run — seven champions in seven years — started in 2019, immediately after Cleveland and Golden State played in four consecutive finals and the league heard plenty of grumbling about a lack of unpredictability. In that seven-year span, 11 different franchises (out of a maximum of 14, obviously) have been to the finals at least once, with the Thunder and Pacers the newest names on that list.
'It's healthy for the league for all 30 teams to be constantly positioning,' Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. 'If you're good, you have to navigate being good. If you're not good, there's systematic things that can help you. I think generally that's good for the league. We're not focused on what's good for the league. We're focused on what's good for the Thunder. We're trying to operate within that environment.'
In other matters covered by Silver on Thursday:
Expansion
There is a board of governors meeting in Las Vegas next month, and Silver thinks it's likely that those owners will decide at that time whether or not to take the next official step toward expanding the league in the coming years.
Officially exploring the notion of adding teams seems likely.
'It will be on the agenda to take the temperature of the room,' Silver said. 'We have committees that are already talking about it, but my sense is at that meeting they're going to give direction to me and my colleagues at the league office that we should continue to explore.'
That does not mean it will definitely happen, even though there are certain markets — Seattle and Las Vegas among them — that are known to want NBA teams.
'I'd say the current sense is we should be exploring it,' Silver said. 'I don't think it's automatic.'
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