NBA commissioner Adam Silver focused on examining 'trend of star players not participating in a full complement of games'

NEW YORK — NBA commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday that while there was no specific discussion of the impending arbitration between Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers, he said his bigger concern moving forward is «a trend of star players not participating in a full complement of games,» and hopes the league and the National Basketball Players Association can address it.

«I'm not standing here saying I have a great solution,» Silver said at a press conference here in midtown Manhattan following this week's two-day meeting of the Board of Governors. «Part of the issue is injuries. One of the things we have focused on at the league office and we're spending — we had begun to spend a lot of time on pre-pandemic — are there things we can do in terms of sharing information, resources around the league to improve best practices, rehabilitation?

»The other way we can get at it, in terms of player participation, is creating other incentives. The Play-In Tournament, I thought, was a beginning of creating renewed incentives for teams to remain competitive and be fighting for playoff position. It may be through in-season tournaments and changes in format where we can get at it."

Silver went on to say that there is even a possibility of looking at changing the 82-game schedule. While he hinted at it in earlier portions of his answer, he's done little to hide his desire over the creation of an in-season tournament, and also said Wednesday that he's happy with the way the play-in tournament has played out over the past two seasons since it was introduced.

«I also have said in the past, if we have too many games, that's something we should look at as well,» Silver said. «It's something, as we sit down and we're looking at new