Decade later, Adam Silver doesn't regret backing betting changes - ESPN

NEW YORK — «Betting on professional sports is currently illegal in most of the United States outside of Nevada. I believe we need a different approach.»

The upcoming 10th anniversary of NBA commissioner Adam Silver typing those two sentences is significant because those words were part of a movement that changed the sports landscape and brought betting on games — a controversial issue for decades — mainstream.

Those two sentences were the start of an op-ed piece that carried Silver's byline in The New York Times, first appearing on the newspaper's website on Nov. 13, 2014, and in the print edition the following day. He wrote the piece himself, not even sure when he started where it was going.

The headline, «Legalize and Regulate Sports Betting,» represented a seismic shift from the NBA's previous position on the matter. Silver was simply trying to start a conversation. A decade later, the NBA has more than two dozen business relationships with gaming companies.

The notion of sports betting isn't part of a conversation anymore. It's a phenomenon.

«I'd say when it comes to sports betting, I certainly don't regret writing that op-ed piece and being in favor of legalized sports betting,» Silver said. «I still think you can't turn the clock back. I think, as I said at the time, with the advent of the internet, widely available sports betting online… that we had to deal directly with technology and recognize that if we don't legalize sports betting, people are going to find ways to do it illegally.»

Silver's op-ed did not change the betting landscape on its own, but it helped get the ball rolling. The ball was not moving very quickly at first; nearly four years after writing the op-ed had passed before the U.S. Supreme Court