ESPN- While Silver did not explicitly confirm that he had been approached by NFL owners, sources close to the situation told ESPN that several NFL owners have tried to persuade Silver to run their league over the course of his five years as the NBA's commissioner. Silver has also been approached by a number of Fortune 500 companies, according to sources.
"I'll just say I have not given it any thought," Silver told ESPN about his reaction to those job opportunities. "I feel very fortunate to be in this position. As a longtime fan, as a longtime league employee, the opportunity to become the commissioner of this league was beyond anything I even ever dreamed of as a kid. "I've loved every day I've been in this job, and I think there's nothing but enormous opportunity ahead for this league. And ultimately, I realize I'm just passing through like every player who's gone through this league and ultimately like every owner, and I feel an enormous obligation to the fans and to this greater NBA family to do my best and try my hardest every day. But that's where 100 percent of my focus is." ------- How? Just...how? How is entirely unsurprising? The NFL thinking they could just pry the nails out of the most crucified Commissioner in professional sports and replace him with the most beloved Commissioner in professional sports with a pitch that probably just equated to a swimming pool full of additional salary should be huge news. Instead, the fact that they tried to give a whole new meaning to the term "copycat league" by not only trying to emulate the NBA's success in being run forwards instead of ass-backwards, but by trying to buy it off them is about as shocking as the NFL botching another domestic abuse investigation. To be fair, the NFL should be looking to add a tell-it-like-it-is type leader. It's partially by design, as being NFL Commissioner basically just means serving as "The Shield" in taking a bunch of bullets on behalf of greedy billionaires, but Adam Silver is all the things Roger Goodell is not. Prompt. Forthright. Likable. Rational. Chances are that list would be stunted in short order if he were the voice of a league that's only progressive in being counterproductive and literally only cares about its liquidity, but - from a personality standpoint - someone like (being the operative words) Adam Silver would be a massive upgrade. That's not really the point though. The point is that the multibillion dollar behemoth of a business is essentially the equivalent of the spoiled grade schooler that thinks everything that strikes his fancy can be funded, regardless of whether or not it belongs to someone else. NFL owners are basically Willy Wonka's worst nightmare in being an entitlement army staffed entirely by Veruca Salt clones. They don't care how, they want it now...despite "it" being something almost as unattainable as a goose that shits out golden eggs. That, of course, being the good will and/or benefit of the doubt that comes as a result of leaving a (very particular, apparently) man with a moral compass to weigh management decisions free of outside influences that are too long in both tooth and pocket to be anything other than short in sight.
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