The NBA really wants to set its 2026-2027 schedule. It’s media partners at NBC Sports, ESPN and Amazon want it too.
It’s just waiting on LeBron James.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver, in a wide-ranging conversation at the CNBC/Boardroom Summit Thursday, said that the league, well aware of a TV draw when it sees one, is waiting to see where former Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James chooses to play next season.
James announced last month that he would leave the Lakers, sparking immediate speculation about where he could end up next.
“We have to finish up the schedule, right? And where LeBron plays will affect the schedule,” Silver told Squawk Box anchor Andrew Ross Sorkin. “So I would like him to make his announcement already, so he can finish the schedule. Because as you might imagine, the teams are calling us, the networks are calling us, and everybody wants to lock in the schedule. But it will influence how we set the schedule, how we set opening week, Christmas Day, etc.”
And Silver may be quietly hoping for a certain outcome or two (like a return to Cleveland, perhaps?)
“On behalf of the league, I think there are certain storylines that may be better than others,” Silver quipped when asked about the possibility. “But I don’t want to prejudge it. Let’s see what he does.”
Silver also addressed a slew of other issues, from league expansion (Bob Iger is said to be pursuing the Las Vegas expansion team) to the state of the NBA’s local media rights, which the league expects to take control of in the near future. Both YouTube and ESPN have expressed interest in the NBA’s local rights, and Silver noted that YouTube is by far the largest streaming platform, while Netflix has viewership on par with major networks.
“Audiences are rapidly shifting,” he said, suggesting that local rights will likely shift to streaming in the future, whether it is with ESPN or YouTube or some other entity. “I would love it to be in combination with local broadcast as well because local broadcast still has that reach that some of the streaming services don’t have.”
And then there’s Caitlin Clark, who has been at the front of the WNBA news cycle after she was seemingly hit in the throat by an opponent in a recent game, with that player not receiving a foul, at least not initially. This week it was reported that Silver asked WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert to review the matter, ultimately reversing that call and declaring it a flagrant foul.
Silver did not deny that he called Engelbert, and instead expressed frustration with Clark’s treatment by the media writ large, especially with political commentators weighing in on her treatment by the league.
“I’ve come to know Caitlin really well. She’s an incredible player and also an incredible person, and she wants to focus on being the best player she can. And she’s become a bit of a political football in this country, and I think it’s incredibly unfair to her,” Silver said. “I don’t think that issue is ultimately about officiating. It’s become political ping pong with her, and she’s a young woman who’s trying to improve her game focus on being the best player as she can, and I don’t even think it’s fair to her that this has become a separate storyline about one foul that should have been called at that time or should have been called a flagrant after the fact.”
