Adam Silver is under fire from NBA fans after his recent comments about the league’s new broadcast schedule. Speaking on the subject, the Commissioner pointed to highlights on platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube as proof that basketball is already widely accessible, but his remarks immediately sparked backlash from fans.
“There’s a huge amount of our content that people can essentially consume for free,” Silver said in a press conference. “I mean, this is very much a highlights-based sport. So Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, you name it. Any service, the New York Times, for that matter, to the extent that your content is not behind a paid firewall. There’s an enormous amount of content out there. YouTube, another example that is advertising-based, that consumers can consume.”
The comments come amid growing resistance to the NBA’s broadcast schedule, which complicates the process of watching live games. With games set to be featured on ABC, ESPN, NBC, Peacock, and Prime Video, regular viewers may now need multiple subscriptions just to keep up.
For the fans, Silver’s response does not quell any of the lingering doubt. By calling the game a “highlight sport,” Silver is essentially encouraging fans to watch two-minute game recaps and highlights over actual live games, and it has resulted in many critical comments.
“Yeah, f*ck Adam Silver,” wrote one fan on X. “The NBA is way more than a ‘highlight sport’ and you’ll never get the full experience or understanding of the game through highlights. This sh*tty mentality is a prime example of why the presentation and discourse around the game is dogsh*t now. What a shame.”
Some critics pointed out the hypocrisy in Silver’s statement, highlighting all the work that has been done to make regular-season games feel more significant.
“This is embarrassing from Adam Silver,” wrote an NBA sports anchor. “After working for years to make regular-season games matter, you are basically saying they don’t matter enough to watch other than highlights.”
Whether fans like it or not, the NBA is leaning into this identity of being a highlight sport, and it could have a devastating impact on how fans engage with the league.
“Silver’s choice to ‘market the NBA as a highlight league’ is so glaringly obvious and such a poor decision,” wrote one fan.
The problem with being a “highlight” fan is that you don’t really get the full context of what makes teams good or bad. There’s so much more to understand than the highlights, and focusing only on those bits can oversimplify a very complex game.
“‘NBA is a highlight league’ in response to rising costs of watching NBA games is certainly a choice on Silver’s part,” wrote one critic. “Gonna grow a generation of TikTok NBA highlight fans.”
It’s no secret that viewership has been down across the board, and the league has been trying many things to get the ratings up. From adding the in-season tournament to changing the format of the All-Star game, Silver clearly knows that fan interest is waning.
What he doesn’t realize is that the issue may be self-inflicted. With the way things are now, fans will have to be selective in which games they watch, or the price will add up to an unaffordable sum. Still, Silver’s solution is to embrace the highlight watchers and use the method as a way to keep people engaged who may not have access to the games.
Ultimately, while the commissioner may think highlights are enough to keep fans happy, the reality is that basketball is best experienced live, with all the context, tension, and flow that can’t be captured in a two-minute clip. By leaning into the idea of the NBA as a “highlight sport,” he risks cheapening the very product he’s trying to sell and alienating the core audience that actually invests in full games. If the league wants long-term growth, it will need to find a way to make live games more accessible instead of pushing fans to TikTok and YouTube.
