NBA Commish Makes It Official: He Hates Sixers’ Tanking Strategy

NBA commissioner Adam Silver watches the game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the San Antonio Spurs at Staples Center. Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

A message to long-suffering Sixers fans out there: Adam Silver feels your pain.

Silver, the NBA commissioner, was on Five Thirty Eight’s Hot Takedown podcast this week, and the Sixers strategy became one of the central topics.

“Am I fan of that strategy? Put it this way: No,” Silver said. “But does that mean that it’s not acceptable under the league rules? It doesn’t.”

Silver denied, however, that he pushed the team to hire new basketball maven Jerry Colangelo, and dismissed suggestions other team owners pushed for his intervention.

“Those reports are not correct,” he said. “Josh Harris, who’s the principal owner of the 76ers, decided on his own that he needed to change course. He and I had many conversations along the way about the utility of the strategy that he was following. And he came to the conclusion once this season began, and he saw how his team was performing on the floor, that he needed to change his strategy.”

The Sixers are 1-28.