NBA fans may have to work through some growing pains this season as the way they consume games changes drastically for the first time in decades. After many years of ESPN and TNT acting as the primary broadcasters of NBA basketball, four different services will be showing games next year: ESPN, NBC, Peacock, and Amazon Prime.
While it will eventually become a new normal, it may prove a rocky transition for fans looking to find where to watch their favorite teams. Not to mention expensive, given Peacock and Prime will be separate expenses from a standard cable package, which used to be enough to catch nationally broadcast games. NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked about the latter issue during a press conference on Wednesday and failed to take the opportunity to assuage fans’ worries. Instead he offered a strange response, stating that an enormous amount of the league is available for free— via highlights, on social media platforms.
Silver was heavily criticized for the response. Eventually former NBA governor and current Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban decided to weigh in. He both criticized and defended Silver, agreeing that he “whiffed” with the highlight comment, but insisting the commissioner is standing up for fans behind the scenes.
“Adam definitely whiffed on this one,” Silver tweeted from his X account. “But I can tell you that unless a lot has changed in the last 20 months, he is one of the people standing up for fans in a room where a lot of owners are not.”
Cuban was the controlling owner of the Mavs for over two decades, and worked with Silver after he was named commissioner in 2014. Cuban sold majority ownership to the franchise in 2023.
Silver’s comments frustrated fans because in a time where everything, including sports, is growing more expensive by the day, he appeared to dismiss a genuine worry by pointing towards social media highlights. There are plenty of fans who are happy to consume the game that way, but there are just as many who want to watch the games in full and are concerned about the direction the NBA appears headed in.
To hear Cuban tell it, though, Silver’s above quote doesn’t fully capture his stance on ensuring fans are taken into consideration.
