Adam Silver

Silver graduated from Duke University in 1984 and later earned a law degree from the University of Chicago Law School. He clerked for federal district judge Kimba Wood in New York and then worked as a lawyer at the law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore.⁠[1][2]

In 1992, Silver joined the NBA, where he served successively as special assistant to the commissioner, NBA chief of staff, president and chief operating officer of NBA Entertainment, and NBA deputy commissioner and chief operating officer. He helped drive the development of the WNBA, the NBA G League, the NBA 2K League and the Basketball Africa League, the building of the NBA’s digital assets, and the establishment of NBA China and NBA Africa. During the 2011 lockout, he and Commissioner David Stern served as the league’s lead negotiators in labor talks.⁠[2][2][2][3]

On October 25, 2012, the NBA Board of Governors unanimously approved Deputy Commissioner Silver to succeed David Stern as commissioner; Stern was scheduled to step down on February 1, 2014, 30 years to the day after becoming commissioner. Silver had by then been deputy commissioner for six years; at the All-Star weekend in February 2012, Stern had said he would recommend Silver to the board as his successor. At the joint news conference that followed, Silver said the league’s opportunities were “truly limitless” and that he would do everything he could to grow the league and the industry.⁠[3][3][3][4][3][3][3][3]

On February 1, 2014, Silver formally became NBA commissioner, overseeing a global sports and media organization made up of five professional leagues.⁠[2]

In April 2014, a recording surfaced of Los Angeles ClippersLA ClippersThe Los Angeles Clippers are an NBA basketball team based at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California, United States.Open the full entry owner Donald Sterling making racist remarks in private, prompting player protests and sponsor withdrawals. On April 29, Silver announced at a news conference that Sterling was banned for life from involvement with the NBA and fined $2.5 million, calling the remarks “deeply offensive and harmful,” and said he would urge the NBA Board of Governors to use its authority to force a sale of the team, which required a vote of three-quarters of team owners. The decision was publicly supported by a number of players and team owners.⁠[5][5][5][5][5][5][5]

In 2015, Silver joined the board of trustees of his alma mater, Duke University; from 2021 he served as vice chair of the board and a member of its executive committee, chaired the honorary degrees committee, and co-chaired the 2021–2022 strategic engagement steering committee. In May 2023, he delivered the commencement address at Duke’s Wallace Wade Stadium.⁠[1][1]

On March 11, 2020, a Utah JazzUtah JazzThe Utah Jazz are an NBA team based at Delta Center in Salt Lake City.Open the full entry player tested preliminarily positive for the coronavirus, and the Jazz’s game against the Oklahoma City ThunderOklahoma City ThunderThe Oklahoma City Thunder are an American NBA basketball team based at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.Open the full entry was called off before tip-off; the NBA then announced that it would suspend play following that night’s games until further notice.⁠[6][6][6]

In June 2020, the Rockefeller Foundation announced that Silver and former Colombian President Juan Manuel SantosJuan Manuel SantosJuan Manuel Santos is a Colombian politician who has been a journalist, minister of foreign trade, minister of finance and minister of defense, and was president of Colombia from 2010 to 2018. During his presidency he negotiated and signed a peace agreement with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to end a civil war that had lasted more than 50 years, for which he received the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize; as of October 2026, he is chair of The Elders and a trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation.Open the full entry were joining its board of trustees.⁠[7][8]

In February 2024, at its quarterly meeting, the Duke University Board of Trustees elected Silver to succeed Laurene Sperling as board chair, for a three-year term beginning July 1, 2024. Silver said that serving as chair was an honor and that he would work with President Vincent E. Price and the other trustees.⁠[1][1][1][1]

On July 24, 2024, the NBA signed 11-year media rights agreements with Disney, NBCNBCNBC (National Broadcasting Company) is an American national commercial broadcast television network. It was founded by RCA in 1926, began as a radio network and later developed television. With ABC and CBS it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks; it passed to General Electric with RCA in 1986, merged with Universal to form NBCUniversal in 2004, has been controlled by Comcast since 2011, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry and Amazon Prime Video, which had previously been approved by the Board of Governors and total about $76 billion over 11 years. The NBA did not accept a $1.8 billion-per-year matching offer from Warner Bros. Discovery, judging that it did not truly match Amazon’s offer, and TNT’s NBA coverage therefore ended after the 2024–25 season. Silver said Prime Video’s large subscriber base would greatly expand the league’s ability to reach fans.⁠[9][9][9][9]

Silver was named “Executive of the Decade” by Sports Business Journal and ranked first on its annual list of the 50 Most Influential People in Sports Business; he has been named to the Time 100 list of the most influential people, Fortune’s list of the World’s 50 Greatest Leaders and the Bloomberg 50, was named Sports Illustrated’s sports executive of the year, and received the 2026 Edison Achievement Award. He has also received distinguished alumni awards from Duke University’s Department of Political Science and the University of Chicago Law School, as well as the University of Chicago’s Professional Achievement Award.⁠[2][10][10]

As of October 2026, Silver is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on the boards of the Paley Center for Media and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, and is vice chair of the Lustgarten Pancreatic Cancer Foundation.⁠[10]

NBA: Official website: https://www.nba.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[2]

Duke University: Official website: https://duke.edu/ (opens in a new window).⁠[10]

The Rockefeller Foundation: Official website: https://www.rockefellerfoundation.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[7]