Adam Silver wanted to reassure fans. Instead, he lit a fire. The NBA commissioner’s recent comments about fans catching games through highlights on YouTube and TikTok raised eyebrows everywhere. Sure, the league thrives on viral moments. But when the man at the top suggests skipping live games altogether? That’s gasoline on a $75 million conversation already burning around the league. And Adam Silver is being perceived as a hypocrite.

“But for him to not go that route and to just dismiss people and say, then just watch the highlights on YouTube… I just thought it was just a dumb thing to say,“ analyst Matt George argued on ESPN 1320. His point hit a nerve very practically, as after years of pushing for regular-season importance with the In-Season Tournament, stricter load management rules, and record-breaking media deals, Silver’s comments suddenly undercut the whole effort.

Silver, for his part, did try to clarify. “Most people can only consume so many games,” he said, pointing to the new media deals that will boost nationally televised broadcasts from 15 to 75 a year. For free if you’re willing to plug in rabbit ears. That’s a big jump, no doubt. But does it offset the fact that diehards will now need ESPN, Amazon Prime, Peacock, NBC, ABC, League Pass, and potentially local RSNs just to follow their team? Not exactly.

George wasn’t convinced either. “You just devalued regular-season basketball games by the comments that you made… If I’m a TV company, if I’m NBC and I just spent all this money or whoever, and I heard those comments from Adam Silver, I’m going, ‘Yo, what? No, that’s not what we want.'” And that’s the catch here. Silver is not only speaking to fans.

He’s speaking to billion-dollar partners. NBC, Amazon, Disney? They didn’t shell out for dunks on TikTok. Not entirely, anyway. They paid for exclusivity, ratings, and eyeballs glued to their platforms. If Silver reduces the live experience to optional, what’s to stop fans from thinking the same? The league’s new 11-year, $75 billion deal is supposed to be the financial rocket fuel that carries the NBA into its next era. 

Higher cap, bigger contracts, richer player salaries… all tied to TV numbers. Superstars like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Brunson will see their future deals balloon because of it. Teams are already projecting how the new influx of money reshapes roster-building. But what happens if the product itself  — the live games — gets devalued?

Adam Silver’s gamble on the future

That’s the nightmare scenario analysts are circling. The NBA can’t afford fans deciding highlights are enough. A two-minute TikTok reel doesn’t sell arena tickets in Detroit. It doesn’t justify NBC’s $2.5 billion annual spend. And it doesn’t keep fans invested in the grind of an 82-game season, which, by the way, LeBron James and Steve Kerr have urged to shorten. 

That grind matters. It’s why the In-Season Tournament exists. It’s why the NBA has fined teams for resting stars on national TV during the regular season. The Jazz were fined $100,000 for violating the PPP by holding Lauri Markkanen out of games despite being a star under the policy. The league said he was generally assumed healthy. Silver himself has fought to preserve the regular season’s meaning. That’s what made George’s reaction sting so much, because it exposed the contradiction.

“So, if that’s where we’re headed, people are naturally going to be frustrated,” George continued. And frustrated they are. Social media was quick to point out the hypocrisy of the commissioner, who once cracked down on load management, now suggesting that missing games isn’t a big deal. Of course, Silver’s defenders argue context. He wasn’t dismissing fans. He was highlighting (pun intended) how accessible NBA moments have become, even for casual viewers. Not everyone can sit through 2.5 hours of Pistons-Hornets on a Tuesday. But does that excuse brushing off those who do?

Because the reality is that every game matters, if not for fans, then for business, and for gamblers, too. Each broadcast window, each RSN deal, each League Pass subscription funnels into the salary cap and into players’ pockets. The star extensions fans argue about on Twitter are tied directly to TV money. Even the players know it. Highlights might build buzz, but full games build wealth.

Silver, for all his brilliance, may have underestimated how fragile that balance is. The NBA is global, yes. It’s thriving on social platforms, yes. But it still depends on fans showing up, physically and digitally, for the whole product. And if the commissioner himself shrugs at that? Well, Matt George wasn’t wrong: the TV partners might be the first ones to pick up the phone.