NBA Finals 2025: NBA Commissioner speaks ahead of OKC vs Indiana Game 1

OKC Thunder spotlighted as NBA Finals begin, Commissioner Silver discusses making 'small market' players shine—watch full conference inside.

Thursday, June 5th 2025, 8:02 pm

By: Carrie Winchel

OKLAHOMA CITY -

As the Oklahoma City Thunder host Game 1 of the NBA Finals, all eyes are on OKC. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver spoke ahead of the Thunder's first Finals game since 2012.

When Silver was asked about what the league could do to raise the profile of players in "smaller markets," Silver pushed back, saying, "I'm not sure I completely buy into the premise of your question. I think Shai is an enormous star. Tyrese, Pascal. I get it, in fairness, not at the level of some other stars that we've had in this league, maybe not as prominent as some players currently still playing in the league."

"It's my expectation, I mean, first of all, whoever comes out of this championship series will rise to the next level almost automatically. But then I think over time those stars are made on the floor, not by the league office," Silver continued.

"But having said that, is there more we can do? Absolutely," Silver said. "We've been talking a lot about it at the league in terms of what's the best way to promote players going forward. We have an enormous presence on social media. We have our new network partners coming in next year who have huge marketing arms: NBC, Peacock, Amazon of course, ESPN, ABC, Disney. I think collectively there is more we can do."

Watch Silver's full news conference in the player below.