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Adam Silver’s tenure as NBA Commissioner began on Feb. 1, 2014.
Silver presides over a global sports and media organization built around five professional sports leagues: the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League.
Silver joined the NBA in 1992. Prior to becoming commissioner, he served as NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer, President and Chief Operating Officer of NBA Entertainment, NBA Chief of Staff, and Special Assistant to the Commissioner.
Silver has been instrumental to many of the league’s signature achievements, including the development of the WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League, and the establishment of NBA China and NBA Africa.
Silver was recognized by the Sports Business Journal as its Executive of the Decade and has been ranked No. 1 on its annual list of the 50 Most Influential People in the Sports Business. He was also named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, Fortune’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders, and The Bloomberg 50. Additionally, he earned Sports Executive of the Year from Sports Illustrated.
Silver was appointed to Duke University’s Board of Trustees in 2015 and currently serves as chair. He was presented with Distinguished Alumni Awards from the Duke Political Science Department and the University of Chicago Law School and received the University of Chicago’s Professional Achievement Award. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on the Board of Trustees for the Rockefeller Foundation, the Paley Center for Media, and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and is Vice Chairman of the Lustgarten Pancreatic Cancer Foundation.
Before joining the NBA, Silver was an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and previously served as a law clerk to Federal District Court Judge Kimba Wood in New York. Silver is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Chicago Law School.
July 2024