Adam Silver on NBA Three-Point Gripes: ‘I’m Listening to the Critics’

NBA commissioner Adam Silver is asked at every turn about the NBA’s increasingly three-point-heavy style. In Paris, he admitted again that he is monitoring the product on the court and aware of concerns that it has become less dynamic.

“I’m listening to the critics,” Silver said. “I don’t want to overreact, but I think there potentially are some adjustments we can make.”

Speaking at a press conference ahead of the league’s two Paris games, Silver gave a four-and-a-half-minute answer to a question about efficiency and the league’s response. “The answer is I’m not sure what we need to do,” Silver began.

Fans and media have been vocal on changes to the game amid a slow start to the NBA season. Viewership was down 18% from last year before a successful Christmas Day slate righted the ship. Silver has spoken before about the rise of three-point shooting in the league, but his Paris presser seemed to be his first public acceptance of a possible need for change.

Silver said “analytics” have impacted multiple sports, and noted that the Celtics have lowered their reliance on three-pointers after their historic long-range shooting to start the season.

Silver said while he enjoys watching the games, he understands adjustments may need to be made—and not just when it comes to shooting. He said the league may have “swung too far” in limiting physicality in past decades to maintain the “finesse aspects of the game,” and noted a change made last year allowing defenses to be more physical.

Silver also mentioned the electric Paris Olympics men’s semifinal and final games that heavily featured three-point shooting. “I don’t think anyone said, ‘Oh, there’s too much three-point shooting in those games,’” he said. But, the commissioner said, his job is to listen to fans and make sure that the NBA product has “the greatest appeal possible.

“I think that partly what fans are responding to isn’t necessarily the number of feet from which the shot has been taken, but what they view as the level of difficulty,” Silver said. “I think fans like a certain aspect of the physical grinding that comes with this game, and I don’t think we want that to be lost.”

That is the exact point Caitlin Clark brought up while simultaneously defending NBA players recently.

“I feel like the average, just like, basketball fan doesn’t understand how good NBA players are, and they think it looks like they’re ‘not trying,’” Clark said on a recent episode of the Kelce brothers’ New Heights podcast. “I promise you they’re trying; they’re just like, so good. Like, that’s why it looks like they’re not trying.”

Clark connected the three-point parade and perceived dip in physicality. “And I wasn’t around when it was like much more physical, and maybe people want more like beef and physicality and people think it’s gotten soft,” she said. “But, I think that’s also because the skill has just changed.”