NBA Commissioner Adam Silver talks Emirates partnership, stance on social media, and why Amazon is the league's next growth opportunity
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00:00The NBA's second in-season tournament is underway, and to the winner goes the Emirates Cup.
00:06I was aboard the 14-hour flight that delivered the Cup from Dubai here to New York, and then
00:12had the opportunity to discuss this partnership, the NBA social media strategy, and how Amazon
00:19is essential in their global growth plan with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.
00:25We started with his thoughts on the first-of-its-kind Emirates NBA-wrapped A380.
00:32This is honestly a thrill.
00:34I don't remember any other partnership like this, where an airline like Emirates, or any
00:40company for that matter, has gone to this level of commitment to us.
00:44As they were saying earlier, they had to take the plane out of the fleet for something like
00:47two weeks in order to prepare it this way.
00:50It's not just the wrappings on the plane, you were on the plane, headrests, programming,
00:55special items that are given out on the flight, food items, the whole thing.
00:59I think everyone at the NBA feels really special.
01:03What do you make of this partnership?
01:05Why was Emirates the right fit?
01:06Certainly there are thousands of companies around the world that would love to work with
01:10the league.
01:11Why are they the right fit?
01:12I'd say for a few reasons.
01:13I'd say, number one, they're one of the fastest-growing airlines in the world.
01:18We're increasingly doing more business in the Gulf region.
01:21We've been playing preseason games in Abu Dhabi for the last three seasons now.
01:26I think they have aspirations to be even more global, just as the NBA has aspirations to
01:30be more global.
01:31So it seemed to come together in that way.
01:33What is it about, whether it's Dubai or Abu Dhabi or the entire region, that fits well
01:38in terms of your international expansion plans?
01:40I think, first of all, they are very international cities.
01:43I think of just being in Abu Dhabi, where they have the Abraham Accords, a great peace
01:48treaty with Israel, where you have cultures coming together.
01:52It's a very young fan base.
01:54It's one that has really growing, intense love of the game of basketball.
01:59I think that in very much, it feels like the center of the world in some ways when you're
02:03over there.
02:04And I also think what we're seeing in the Gulf region and what we're looking at doing
02:09in Abu Dhabi, for example, it can be a hub for the broader region in terms of potential
02:14to have a basketball academy there.
02:17For example, where we played in Abu Dhabi, NYU has a campus there.
02:21There's a branch of the Louvre Museum.
02:23They're building a Guggenheim Museum, Formula One is there, Disney is building there, Warner
02:29Brothers has a studio there.
02:32I mean, it's quite amazing all that's being sort of developed around that area.
02:38There's a sense of innovation, a sense of growth.
02:40Again, it feels very similar to where the NBA sees itself in the sports ecosystem.
02:44Yeah, many people in Dubai say there's almost an American spirit there in what they're trying
02:48to do and what they're trying to build.
02:50You've been to Dubai.
02:51We just came back.
02:52What were your impressions of Dubai?
02:55I think Dubai, it's hard to imagine anywhere else on the planet where there are as many
03:01cranes, there's as much growth, there's as many bright lights.
03:05It's just, to your point, a real spirit of can-do, of innovation.
03:10I think they're attracting capital from around the world.
03:13You see all the major brands there and it just seems like unlimited possibilities.
03:19So the partnership, of course, we should have mentioned off the start, is all about this
03:22in-season tournament.
03:24The Emirates Cup will be awarded to the winner of the in-season tournament for the second
03:28year in a row.
03:29What was the idea, going back to the beginning of this tournament, what was the concept all
03:33about?
03:34The idea was to take a series of regular season games and create some more sizzle around them.
03:41In the same way that looking at European soccer leagues, that there have always traditionally
03:46been a series of Cups, they're all competing for a championship.
03:48That's where we took the concept from.
03:51I think, again, the thought was in the NBA, we have a fairly lengthy regular season already.
03:57So the idea was we wanted to take advantage of games we already have, but make those games
04:02special.
04:03So that's the notion.
04:04It was the in-season tournament.
04:05It's been rebranded the Emirates NBA Cup.
04:08So we're particularly excited about that.
04:10We were off to a great start last year.
04:13Of course, James Worthy's Lakers were our inaugural champion of the NBA Cup.
04:18And I think what this year, as we begin tonight, there's a lot more excitement because I think
04:22that both the players and teams and the fans have a better understanding of what it is.
04:26They understand the format now.
04:28They understand how you compete in the pool competition before you get to the knockout
04:33round, the championships, which of course are in Las Vegas.
04:36So that's how it came together and we're really excited.
04:39We're off and running today.
04:40James said he'd like the baton to be passed from his Lakers.
04:43He wants a small mid-market size team to win the Emirates Cup this season.
04:48Part of it was obviously, to your point, juicing interest early in the season, perhaps juicing
04:53ratings a little bit, which would have been down a little bit to start the season.
04:57Any concern?
04:58Any theories?
04:59Shaq said it had something to do with the over-reliance on the three-point line.
05:02No, I don't think it has anything to do with the three-point shot.
05:05I think it's, you know, we're just looking at a couple of weeks of ratings.
05:08You know, there's always some unique things this year.
05:10We were up against the World Series.
05:12Speaking of L.A., you know, Dodgers, Yankees.
05:14My Yankees didn't make it, but, you know, two very attractive teams that had a good
05:19run that brought in a big audience.
05:20You had a presidential election, which was commanding an enormous amount of attention.
05:24So I don't think it has anything whatsoever to do with the style of play on the floor.
05:29I mean, on the style of play, I mean, I love where our game is right now.
05:32I mean, there's always things we're looking at to tweak it in various ways, but the fans
05:36are responding.
05:37We have more social media traffic than any time in our history.
05:40It's a huge global marketplace of interest in the NBA.
05:44So as I said, we're off to a good start and particularly excited that the Cup is about
05:47to start.
05:48You mentioned the social media.
05:49Your director shared with me some numbers that blew my mind.
05:53Your followers doubled, the NHL, the Major League Baseball combined.
06:01Why have you guys distanced yourself so far, social media-wise, from the other leagues?
06:07What are you doing differently than the other leagues?
06:08You know, I would just say I don't make those comparisons to other leagues, honestly, because
06:12good for the other leagues.
06:13No, it was hard data.
06:14It was hard data.
06:15I accept that.
06:16But that's not, at the league office, we're not sitting around comparing ourselves to
06:20other leagues.
06:22And frankly, while I'm a fan of other sports and rooting for them, we compare ourselves
06:28sort of to, frankly, the biggest brands in the world.
06:31We were, two years ago, we were one of the top five search terms on Google, Google globally.
06:36The NBA, its teams, its players.
06:38I mean, so it's not just, I feel it's almost too limiting just to compare us to another
06:42sport league when there's a global market for entertainment and sport.
06:47I think in terms of social media, we have a particularly young fan base.
06:51I mean, most important number, rather than relative to other leagues, there's something
06:54like two billion people on a planet of eight billion or seven and a half billion who connect
06:59with the NBA in some way, and over a billion people who will watch some portion of a game.
07:04So that's particularly exciting to us.
07:07After soccer, we're the number two sport in the world and most likely the fastest growing
07:11sport in the world.
07:12So we just came off an incredible Olympics in France, where we had 140 NBA and WNBA players
07:19competing.
07:21We actually had USA, France, and two gold medal games, men's and women's.
07:23So as I said, I think the best days are ahead of this league, that people love this sport.
07:28We're being embraced culturally and by governments around the world because it's boys, it's girls,
07:33it's men's and women, it's physical activity.
07:36It teaches people important values for equality, of egalitarianism, of fitness.
07:43So we're really pleased with the state of the game.
07:46So you compare yourselves to Apple and the biggest companies in the planet?
07:50We compare when it comes to brand recognition, absolutely.
07:53And we compare to engagement and how our customers, in our case fans, connect with us.
08:00Definitely.
08:01I mean, I think it would be too limiting.
08:02And again, no knock on the other leagues.
08:04And I don't sit around saying us versus the other leagues because I hope they're doing
08:08the same thing.
08:09Their goal isn't to be bigger than the NBA.
08:11Their goal, and some of them are of course bigger than the NBA, their goal is to compete
08:15for a global audience.
08:17And we see it that way.
08:18If there are eight billion people in the world and two billion are connecting on digital
08:24social media, there's six billion we're not connecting with.
08:26That's how I look at it.
08:28Not to compare, the NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said they're shooting for eight international
08:33games next year.
08:34I think you're at three this year.
08:36Is there plans to go beyond that?
08:38And are there certain destinations that are attractive to you?
08:41Again, I think the NFL is a very different approach to us.
08:44As I just said, we're just coming off Olympic competition where, as I said, we had 140 NBA
08:49and WNBA players.
08:50So we also have different ways of reaching our international fans in the NFL.
08:54And frankly for the NFL, where they have a much less dense schedule, it's a little easier
08:59within their regular season to play games, have ample time to travel back, a bye week
09:04or whatever else.
09:05I mean, as you said, we have three different opportunities this season.
09:09We're going to be in Paris in January.
09:10I was just in Mexico City a week and a half ago.
09:14Where we played and we were in Abu Dhabi preseason.
09:17So there's probably not a lot more room in our schedule to add more regular season games.
09:23We'll probably continue to do more preseason games.
09:25That's something we're interested in doing.
09:27But as I said, we have ways of reaching fans globally.
09:29And you spoke about potential expansion to Mexico City, which was interesting.
09:33Why is it an attractive market?
09:35And financially, why could it be even potentially more profitable than a Vegas and a Seattle?
09:41Without making the comparisons to Vegas and Seattle, I would say in terms of Mexico City,
09:4522 million people, largest city in North America, 130 people in Mexico, a gateway to Latin America
09:52and a large Hispanic U.S. population.
09:55So I think both in terms of interest and potentially as a business matter, it would be a big winner.
10:01As I said when I was in Mexico City, I would love to expand there.
10:04I'm not sure the rest of the league is quite ready yet.
10:07I'm not necessarily comparing them to other U.S. potential, U.S. cities where we might expand.
10:14But over time, maybe when Emirates starts flying to Mexico City, that'll help as well.
10:18But going from New York, as you know, it's faster to get to Mexico City than, of course, it is to L.A.
10:24So there's no issue in terms of moving our teams around.
10:27I just think that we're looking to potentially the domestic expansion first,
10:31then we'll turn at some point to other potential markets outside the U.S.
10:35Final question, you're expanding your borders, but you're also expanding the borders of television beyond broadcast media.
10:41What is it that excites you about the Amazon opportunity?
10:44Was there something you saw with Thursday Night Football that said, yes, that was where they passed the test?
10:51That's what excites us about streaming moving forward.
10:54I could go on for a while about Amazon, but quickly, one, in terms of Amazon,
11:00they're one of the best consumer facing companies in the world.
11:03I mean, their ability to connect with people just beginning in the United States.
11:08I don't know about you, but how many Amazon boxes, you know, if you saw my family, three or four, they're lining up every day.
11:14And so they know how to market.
11:17They understand consumer taste.
11:19That's number one. Then when it comes specifically to sports, as you said, they're in the NFL business.
11:25They demonstrated that first there were some questions not only just a year or two ago,
11:29whether that technology would hold up when you're reaching millions of people at once.
11:33They've demonstrated that Peacock's demonstrated that at NBCUniversal, that the technology works.
11:38I'd say number three, one of the things that excites me the most is that right now,
11:44sporting events we watch on streaming services are largely the same productions that would have been on broadcast or cable.
11:50But companies like Amazon, companies like NBCUniversal, Disney, for that matter, with ESPN,
11:55as they begin to innovate and think, all right, now this is, in essence, Internet television.
11:59We can customize telecasts for people who are hardcore fans.
12:03They can hear one feed for people who are just learning the game, for people who want more of a comical take on the game.
12:07You know, it's sort of a Manning cast, but there's unlimited opportunities that people who want to shop while they're watching,
12:13people who want some sort of gamification, people want to bet, frankly, where it's legal.
12:17All those things become possible to create much more individual, personalized experiences,
12:22just like shopping on Amazon, where they know what you want.
12:25You're a shopper there.
12:26Before you do sometimes.
12:27Absolutely. They know, they do.
12:29And they know what to provide you.
12:31And it's because of that great, like, the selection, you know, the enormous opportunities to buy things there,
12:38because of the ease in purchasing there, that's why we keep going back to Amazon.
12:43And I think it's going to be the same for the telecast.
12:45We're going to get people who watch to watch longer and people who aren't currently watching the NBA to begin to watch.
12:50It's an exciting time, Commissioner.
12:51Congratulations on this.
12:53Thank you for the time. We appreciate it.
12:54Do I get to keep this?
12:55You can keep that.
12:55Yes.