Adam Silver

Adam Silver (born April 25, 1962) is an American lawyer and sports executive who is serving as the fifth and current commissioner of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He joined the NBA in 1992 and has held various positions within the league, becoming chief operating officer and deputy commissioner under his predecessor and mentor David Stern in 2006. When Stern retired in 2014, Silver was named commissioner.

During his tenure, Silver has gained praise for growing the game economically and globally, especially in China. Critics claim the quality of the game has suffered.

Silver made headlines in 2014 for forcing Donald Sterling to sell the Los Angeles Clippers, after banning Sterling for life from all NBA games and events when private recordings of him making racist remarks were made public.

Silver was born into a Jewish-American family. His father Edward Silver (1921–2004) was a lawyer who specialized in labor law and was a senior partner at the law firm Proskauer Rose. Silver grew up in Rye, New York, a northern suburb of New York City in Westchester County. He attended Rye High School and graduated in 1980.

After high school, Silver went to Duke University. He was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity, and graduated in 1984 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science. Silver worked from 1984 to 1985 as a legislative aide to Les AuCoin, who was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Silver then attended the University of Chicago Law School, graduating in 1988 with a J.D. degree.

After law school, Silver spent a year as a law clerk for Judge Kimba Wood of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He then joined the law firm of Cravath, Swaine & Moore as an associate.

Since joining the NBA in 1992, Silver held the position of senior VP and COO of NBA Entertainment working his way up to president and COO, which he held for eight years. During his time with NBA Entertainment, Silver was an executive producer of the IMAX movie Michael Jordan to the Max, as well as the documentary Whatever Happened to Micheal Ray? He contributed to the productions of Like Mike and The Year of the Yao. Silver also approved an idea allowing a documentary crew to follow and film the Chicago Bulls during their 1997–98 season, which was eventually turned into the documentary The Last Dance.

Silver also held the positions of NBA chief of staff and special assistant to the commissioner.

Silver was the NBA's deputy commissioner and chief operating officer for eight years. In that role, he was involved in the negotiation of the league's last three collective bargaining agreements with the National Basketball Players Association, the development of the WNBA and NBA Development League, the partnership with Turner Broadcasting to manage the NBA's digital assets, and the creation of NBA China.

On October 25, 2012, NBA commissioner David Stern announced his retirement date and endorsed Silver to succeed him. Shortly after, the NBA Board of Governors unanimously voted in favor of Silver to become the next NBA commissioner. Silver officially assumed the role on February 1, 2014, after Stern stepped down from the position.

On April 25, 2014, TMZ Sports released a video of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling holding a conversation with his girlfriend that included racist remarks. Silver responded four days later, announcing that Sterling had been banned from the NBA for life. In addition, Silver fined Sterling $2.5 million, the maximum allowed under the NBA constitution. Silver stripped Sterling from virtually all of his authority over the Clippers, and urged owners to vote to expel Sterling from ownership of the Clippers. Sterling was disallowed from entering any Clippers facility as well as attending any NBA games. It was one of the most severe punishments ever imposed on a professional sports owner.

In 2016, Sports Business Journal ranked Silver No. 1 on its list of the 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business. In 2015, Silver was named Executive of the Year by Sports Business Journal. That same year, he was also named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People and one of Fortune's 50 Greatest Leaders.

In 2014, Silver was named the Sports Illustrated Executive of the Year. He is on Duke University's board of trustees and received the 2016 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Chicago Law School. Silver is also on the board of the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.

Silver has sat on the board of trustees of NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital since 2023.

In 2015, Silver married interior designer Maggie Grise. They have two daughters, born in April 2017 and May 2020.