Remember back in 2011 when the NBA had a lockout and how there was no basketball until Christmas and it was awful? Well, good news! NBA commissioner Adam Silver doesn’t think we’re going to have to deal with a lockout again in 2017, which is fantastic.
Silver made a cameo on The Jump, ESPN’s new show hosted by Rachel Nichols. When asked bluntly about the possibility of a work stoppage in the near future, Silver said he was “extraordinarily optimistic” that such a scenario would be avoided. He even went as far as to rate his confidence at a 10 on a scale of 1-10.
The commissioner said there is an agreement the meetings will stay private, but he did shine a little more light onto why he’s comfortable making such a proclamation.
“The tenor is we have an obligation to the game,” Silver said. “Even those words have been used in the meetings, and so I think we’re starting very early in our discussions, we’re approaching it in a very serious way. And so I’m extraordinarily optimistic that we’re gonna work through our issues and get something done.”
Silver said that no one – no player, executive, etc. – wants to go through another work stoppage, which may be the best news for basketball fans who hope to avoid another doomsday scenario where we go a few months without the game. Sure, there’s probably a long way to go until both sides agree on a new CBA and anything can happen between now and the start of the 2017 season, but it sounds like we’re not going to suffer through another work stoppage.
