After this trade deadline’s shocking Luka Doncic trade from Dallas to Los Angeles, there has been an overwhelming possibility suggested by fans that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver should have done something about it and even vetoed the deal before it became official.
With this negotiation, the Mavericks gave up the Slovenian superstar, Maxi Kleber, and Markieff Morris, while receiving Anthony Davis, Max Christie, and a 2029 first-round pick in the move. Especially Texan fans have been outspoken about the fact that they should’ve asked for more in return for Luka.
This is why during an interview with Barstool Sports’ Pardon My Take podcast this week, Silver addressed this collective misconception that he has the power to block trades. “No, believe it or not. And there’s some confusion. People have yelled out to me for some reason in the last week or so when I’ve been at games that I should be vetoing that trade the way David Stern vetoed a trade back in the old days.
No, Adam Silver cannot veto trades.
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“There’s always some confusion there,” the commissioner explained. “David never vetoed a trade. When he was the acting owner of the New Orleans [Hornets] and the commissioner at the time, he turned down a trade that was proposed to him by the general manager of the team.”
The league executive was referencing a trade back in 2011 that would have sent Chris Paul from the then-New Orleans Hornets to the Los Angeles Lakers and paired him with Kobe Bryant. However, the NBA had ownership over the Hornets back then, and the acting president of basketball operations shut down the deal.
Silver then continued: “We don’t put a thumb on the scale, so to speak. When a trade comes into the league office, what our basketball and legal folks do is they make sure that that trade works under the confines of the collective bargaining agreement, whatever rules are in place.”
According to the NBA commissioner, the league has no say in what merits are used behind each franchise’s decisions to trade. “And then it’s up or down—it gets approved or not based on those rules. We don’t get to weigh on what we think the merits of the trade are or should be,” he assured.
