The NBA has always had dominant teams, but the Warriors have forced an existential crisis among many basketball fans the last few years. Not only are they winning titles, but they're improving beyond that by signing stars such as Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins. This is forcing NBA commissioner Adam Silver to address the question. Does the NBA have a competitive balance issue?
Following the NBA's board of governors meeting, Silver addressed the media about the Warriors dominance as well as the lack of balance between the Eastern and Western conferences. Via ESPN.
"I'm not here to say we have a problem," Silver said following the annual board of governors meeting in Las Vegas. "I love where the league is right now. But as I said earlier, I think we can create a better system. We learn from each successive deal, we try new things, we make predictions about how caps and exceptions will work. We have great economists who come in on our side of the table; the union does as well. But it's not a perfect science in trying to predict the behavior of our teams, and things change in the marketplace as well. So I don't think it is necessarily per se bad that the Warriors are so dominant.
"As I've said before, we're not trying to create some sort of forced parity. What we are really focused on is parity of opportunity"
This is a fine line that Silver has to walk. He doesn't want a league where it just feels like one team can dominate all times. He knows at the end of the day the NBA is entertainment for fans and fans don't want at least some semblance of drama. At the same time, the NBA is competitive and it wouldn't be fair to teams that operate well to have rules and regulations that stand in the way of their success.
It is interesting though to hear that Silver believes the NBA can improve. That's a great mindset for a commissioner to have. The NBA should never rest and believe that it can't make itself better in some way. The sport is constantly evolving and as a result the NBA needs to be constantly evolving as well. It's up to people like Silver to recognize that and make changes when necessary.
