Though they generate a ton of additional interest for his league, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver isn't a big fan of trade demands by players, especially when they are made public.
More NBA news
"I would just say, blanketedly, no, I don't like trade demands, and I wish they didn't come," Silver said at All-Star Weekend in Charlotte, via ESPN. "And I wish all those matters were handled behind closed doors... In terms of trade demands, again, certainly, that's nothing new in this league, and I won't name names, but some of the greatest players in the history of this league have demanded trades at various points in their contract. Having said that, no one likes to see an instance where a player is demanding that he be traded when he still is in the middle of a contractual obligation to a team."
Silver said that the league has to take some responsibility for the increasing nature of public trade demands.
"The league has to take responsibility," Silver said. "The thought was teams should be able to be in a position to extend a year early, so that a player didn't reach the end of his contract and then a team was then in a position where they were blindsided and say, 'Well, we had no idea the player wasn't going to stay.' And the notion of extending a year earlier is so you could have that conversation with the player, and the player told you behind closed doors, of course, 'I'm going to honor my contract, but I don't plan on staying at the end of it.' The team would be in a position to get fair value for the player. Once again, the law of unintended consequences, it hasn't worked as precisely as we had planned. That's another area we have to focus on."
In addition, Silver isn't interested in the media attention that public trade demands bring to the league despite the fact that the recent Anthony Davis trade rumors dominated the sports media world for more than a week straight leading up to the trade deadline.
"I recognize, and I think it's perfectly appropriate, that conversations take place behind closed doors, where players or their agents are saying to management, 'It's my intention to move on,' for whatever reasons," Silver said. "I think, when they make a public spectacle of it, I hear you in terms of the enormous media interest that comes from it, but that's not the kind of media interest we're looking for."
With Silver's feelings on the issue now known, it will be interesting to see if the league takes any steps to try to reduce trade demands becoming public moving forward.
