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Speaker 1: Commissioner. I'm getting a little annoyed for you, and I'm

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Speaker 1: curious how you feel. There were certain things that I

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Speaker 1: thought were untouchable when it came to the NBA on TV.

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Speaker 1: Christmas was one of those. MLK was one of those.

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Speaker 1: And now every time I look up the NFL is

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Speaker 1: putting games on the same days that I thought were

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Speaker 1: NBA days. It kind of seems greedy to me, And

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Speaker 1: I was curious what it seems like to you.

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Speaker 2: I for us, it's it's it's I think it's completely

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Speaker 2: appropriate for them to compete in whatever fashion they think

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Speaker 2: is in their best interest. You're entitled to be annoyed.

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Speaker 2: I just think we welcome the competition in some ways. Actually,

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Speaker 2: I really believe this that it's a rising tide for

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Speaker 2: all sports. If you look at where major live sports

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Speaker 2: now are on television, really any platform, because you're seeing it.

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Speaker 2: You know, of course, Christmas Day the competition terms of

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Speaker 2: the NFL was on Netflix, you know, which only a

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Speaker 2: year ago was saying they weren't likely to go into

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Speaker 2: the live sports business. So for me, if you look

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Speaker 2: now at the dominance of live sports on television, you know,

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Speaker 2: increasingly on streaming, I think that's really healthy. One of

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Speaker 2: the things that I love to see. And yeah, there's

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Speaker 2: competition among the leagues, no question about it. But as

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Speaker 2: production has gotten better, innovation has gotten better about how

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Speaker 2: around how to deliver games. I mean, just think about

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Speaker 2: it now. Check you know, for certainly early in your career,

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Speaker 2: if you wanted to see you play, you know, you

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Speaker 2: had to get in front of a traditional television, you

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Speaker 2: had to get home, you had to be it had

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Speaker 2: to be on a national network. I mean, now, if

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Speaker 2: you have a phone, you can watch every single game.

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Speaker 2: If you're a fan of Victor Wemban Yama, you can

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Speaker 2: see every San Antonio Spurs game. It's either going to

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Speaker 2: be on a national network or it's going to be

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Speaker 2: on League Pass, whether you know you live in Atlanta

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Speaker 2: or wherever you are, so you know, Adam, I think

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Speaker 2: that the good news is that it is a rising tide.

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Speaker 2: The competition, I think is healthy, and I think just

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Speaker 2: like in sports, competition is good. It's how our system works.

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Speaker 2: It keeps us on our toes, it pushes us to

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Speaker 2: get better, and hopefully it pushes the other leagues to

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Speaker 2: get better as well.

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Speaker 3: Commissioner, I don't think a lot of people give you

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Speaker 3: credit for being the visionary that you are coming in

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Speaker 3: in ninety two. You know how you guys, you and

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Speaker 3: mister Stern always told us to stay away from betting,

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Speaker 3: But in twenty fourteen you were a major voice for

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Speaker 3: the legalizing sports betting. Why was that important for the

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Speaker 3: future of our game under your leadership?

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Speaker 2: First of all, the message we're still delivering to players

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Speaker 2: is to stay away from betting, right, but putting that aside,

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Speaker 2: I think essentially what happened from the early nineties until

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Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, roughly that's when I became Commissioner and advocated

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Speaker 2: for legalized sports betting was the Internet. And the Internet

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Speaker 2: disrupted the sports betting industry, just like it has virtually

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Speaker 2: every other industry. Incidentally, it took longer, but it disrupted

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Speaker 2: the television industry. Now streaming in essence is Internet TV.

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Speaker 2: And where I felt were when I became commissioner, and

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Speaker 2: it was one area where I think David Stern and

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Speaker 2: I had had a bit of a disagreement. But my

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Speaker 2: view was the issue wasn't whether there should be sports

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Speaker 2: betting nationally in the United States. It was whether there

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Speaker 2: was going to continue to be an illegal market for

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Speaker 2: sports betting or predominantly an illegal market or predominantly illegal market.

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Speaker 2: And my view was it was in the best interest

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Speaker 2: of the league and frankly in the best interests of

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Speaker 2: the fans that if there's going to be a massive

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Speaker 2: amount of sports betting, that it be an a regulated,

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Speaker 2: legal structure, you know, one that allows for transparency. You know,

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Speaker 2: I've analogized before to a public stock market where if

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Speaker 2: there's aberrational behavior, you know, the sophisticated computers, you know,

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Speaker 2: instantly can detect that somebody who's never bet before is

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Speaker 2: all of a sudden betting a lot, or somebody who's

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Speaker 2: betting patterns change, or there's a lot of action going

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Speaker 2: on a particular game, or a moment you know it's

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Speaker 2: you know, a prop bet in a particular game. All

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Speaker 2: those things. So, I mean it it doesn't come without

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Speaker 2: its downside, There's no question about it. And I think

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Speaker 2: the betting companies, you know, the regulators are still feeling

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Speaker 2: their way through this new world of massive sports betting

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Speaker 2: now or I think you're at roughly thirty five states.

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Speaker 2: I mean, one of the things that I did advocate

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Speaker 2: for back in twenty fourteen was to have national legislation,

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Speaker 2: federal legislation on sports betting, rather than having each state

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Speaker 2: creating its own infrastructure in its own regulatory body. I mean,

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Speaker 2: my preference would still be to have federal legislation on that,

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Speaker 2: but you know, I think on balanced, well, I'm pretty

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Speaker 2: convinced on balance, you're still better off with legal, regulated

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Speaker 2: betting rather than a huge illegal market. And what we

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Speaker 2: also saw, remember talking about this back before legalized betting

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Speaker 2: started the United States, that even when it was essentially illegal,

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Speaker 2: if you went on Google or any of the major

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Speaker 2: search sites and put in bet NBA or bet NFL

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Speaker 2: or any of the major leagues, you could there were

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Speaker 2: endless numbers of sites. I guess they were technically offshore,

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Speaker 2: but they still had little MX logos, et cetera. You know,

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Speaker 2: it wasn't you know, you can still put your credit

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Speaker 2: card in and bet, but there was no transparency for

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Speaker 2: the league's so weren't. I believe we're in a better

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Speaker 2: place now, but there's no doubt there's problematic betting out there.

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Speaker 2: I mean, the good news is that when it's legal,

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Speaker 2: we can detect it. I mean, there's still an enormous

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Speaker 2: amount of illegal betting that's going on with bookies as

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Speaker 2: well right now, but there's not as much transparency there.

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Speaker 3: Commissioner. Last thing, we know, you got to go looking ahead.

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Speaker 3: What do you want basketball basketball fans know about the

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Speaker 3: future of our game.

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Speaker 2: I think I want them to know that Number one,

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Speaker 2: we're listening to what people say. I mean, I don't

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Speaker 2: want people to think for a second that to the

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Speaker 2: extent that you know, they're unhappy with, you know, players

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Speaker 2: that are resting or think there's too many three point shooting.

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Speaker 2: I mean, as you said before, the community is very

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Speaker 2: focused on those issues. But at the same time, I

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Speaker 2: think that the game has never been in a better place.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I'm astounded on a nightly basis by what

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Speaker 2: I'm saying on the floor, and if anything, I get

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Speaker 2: a bit frustrated at times because I feel there's more

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Speaker 2: that the league office should be able to do to

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Speaker 2: translate what I'm watching in a way that people at

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Speaker 2: home are understanding how incredibly entertaining and off the charts

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Speaker 2: athletic and skilled these players are. And so I genuinely

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Speaker 2: believe the best days are ahead of this league. I

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Speaker 2: should mention too, I'm so proud of what's happening in

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Speaker 2: the WNBA right now with women's basketball also, you know,

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Speaker 2: been at that for twenty eight years now at this

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Speaker 2: you know, supporting women's basketball, and it's really turned a

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Speaker 2: corner in the last couple of years. So I just

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Speaker 2: think this is this game. I love this game of basketball,

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Speaker 2: and I think to extent that we can bring joy

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Speaker 2: to more people's lives to this game. Get more young

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Speaker 2: boys and girls playing this game, you know, being part

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Speaker 2: of a team, understanding the values of this game that

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Speaker 2: that Bill Bradley has written about and others have talked about.

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Speaker 2: I think it just could be so additive to people's lives.

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Speaker 1: Commission Before I go, I just realized what kind of

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Speaker 1: a player were you? What was your style? Did you

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Speaker 1: have a jumper?

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Speaker 3: Like? What?

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Speaker 1: What were you like on the court.

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Speaker 2: I had one of those jumpers where your feet doesn't

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Speaker 2: leave the floor. I was that shot. I was a

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Speaker 2: very mediocre playground player in Ryan, New York.

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Speaker 1: I feel like Commissioner could beat Kenny in the shooting content.

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Speaker 2: No shot, no shot too, don't sell yourself shorts, you

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Speaker 2: know what?

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Speaker 3: You know what may nineteenth Commissioner Adam Silver versus Kenny Smith.

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Speaker 3: I think he.

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Speaker 2: Doesn't have four rings but he doesn't have four rings,

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Speaker 2: but he has two. No shots

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Speaker 3: This