Adam Silver is building a fierce reputation of being the most progressive professional sports commissioners in the country. Part of Silver's progressivism in the sports-entertainment industry has been his honesty on topics concerning the league and the direction he sees for the association. In a recent interview with TODAY's Craig Melvin, Silver revealed that the league faced a bit of a downtick in television ratings and Silver attributes that drop to LeBron James moving from Cleveland to Los Angeles.
Silver tells Melvin: "Face it, LeBron is one of the biggest stars in the world, and he also played in the East, [...] so, the reason I look a little bit tired is a lot of our games are in the West, and it’s late at night. And I recognize most people choose to go to sleep at a reasonable time. And so, from a rating standpoint, not having LeBron in the playoffs, not having him in the East, has clearly impacted ratings."
The commish did offer a slight caveat, stating that many people are moving to on-demand streaming to view the games, specifically the playoffs, which could explain the dip in ratings as well.
Silver begins talking about league ratings around the 20:10 mark above.
Source: youtube.com