Browsing: Silver

• David Purdum

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  David Purdum

  ESPN Staff Writer

  • Joined ESPN in 2014
  • Journalist covering gambling industry since 2008

• Doug Greenberg

Oct 21, 2025, 05:11 PM ET

NBA commissioner Adam Silver, the first acting professional league commissioner to come out in support of legalizing sports betting in the United States, said Tuesday that more regulation is needed to reduce opportunities for game manipulation related to gambling and to combat bad fan behavior in arenas, which may stem from losing wagers.

Appearing on “The Pat McAfee Show,” Silver pointed to the NBA’s efforts to reduce betting options on players on two-way contracts. In the summer of 2024, the NBA asked its sportsbook partners to refrain from offering prop bets on players on two-way contracts to underperform, after Jontay Porter, formerly of the Toronto Raptors, was found to have manipulated his performance in multiple games during the 2023-24 season as part of a gambling scheme. Silver banned Porter from the NBA.

“We’ve asked some of our partners to pull back some of the prop bets, especially when they’re on two-way players, guys who don’t have the same stake in the competition, where it’s too easy to manipulate something, which seems otherwise small and inconsequential to the overall score,” said Silver. “We’re trying to put in place — learning as we go and working with the betting companies — some additional control to prevent some of that manipulation.”

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Silver said that prop bets also can lead to abuse of players from fans, even in winning efforts.

“It’s often the case that your team wins and a player scores 25 points, but the fan, the bettor, had bet that the player was going to score 28 points or 30 points,” Silver said. “We have to protect the competitors. We want to protect the environment in the arena of people getting out of hand.”

The NBA sent out a memo to teams last week, emphasizing the “need for consistent and vigilant enforcement of the NBA Fan Code of Conduct to deter and address fan misconduct at NBA games and events,” according to a source familiar with the memo.

In 2014, Silver wrote an op-ed in the New York Times calling for a new approach to sports betting, including federal regulation. At the time, state-sponsored sports betting was allowed primarily only in Nevada. Eleven years later, 39 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have launched legal betting markets.

“I think, probably, there should be more regulation, frankly,” Silver told McAfee on Tuesday. “I wish there was federal legislation rather than state by state. I think you’ve got to monitor the amount of promotion, the amount of advertising around it.”

Silver added that the regulated market does allow for more visibility of the bets, who is placing them and from where.

“With this regulated structure of legalized betting, we can monitor it in ways that were unimaginable years ago,” said Silver. “If there’s any aberrational behavior: People betting large numbers who hadn’t historically done so, just opening an account to place bets, or even the geotargeting, we know exactly from where the bets are being placed, very specifically. If you’re in an arena and place a bet, we know you’re in the arena in many cases. We know where in the arena you are when you place that bet.”

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The 2026 NBA All-Star game is coming to the Clippers†new home, the Intuit Dome, and the NBAâ€s ongoing investigation into possible salary cap circumvention by the team to get more money to Kawhi Leonard is not going to change that, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said.

“Thereâ€s no contemplation of moving the All-Star Game,†Silver said Monday, while at the NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, to discuss the networkâ€s return to broadcasting NBA games (including the All-Star Game). “Planning for the All-Star Game and the surrounding activities are operating completely independently of the ongoing investigation.â€

This shouldnâ€t be a surprise. The NBAâ€s All-Star Game is a massive production and undertaking that goes well beyond just the on-court games and showcases. Players and league sponsors plan events and parties, hotels and venues are booked, and fans plan trips to the host city around the All-Star events. To rip that up and move a game less than five months out would be an impossible task. The NBA did move the 2017 All-Star Game out of Charlotte in reaction to the “bathroom law†in North Carolina; however, it made that move in the previous summer (the league returned to Charlotte with the game two years later, in 2019).

The league is investigating an alleged “no-show†endorsement contract Leonard had with a Clippers sponsor, a company called Aspiration, that team owner Steve Ballmer had invested in multiple times. Aspiration also became a team sponsor and the Clippers bought environmental credits from the company — that was Aspirationâ€s “business†— for the Intuit Dome. The relationship between the Clippers and the sponsor fell apart in 2023 (although not before minority owner Dennis Wong made a $2 million investment in Aspiration, just before Leonard received one of his $1.75 million endorsement payments). Aspiration has since filed for bankruptcy, and its CEO pled guilty to defrauding investors.

At the heart of the allegations — first uncovered by the Pablo Torre Finds Out podcast — is that Leonard did no work or marketing for Aspiration yet got a $48 million endorsement deal ($20 million in now-worthless stock). People with Aspiration told the podcast that this deal was about circumventing the salary cap. Both Leonard and the Clippers have maintained their innocence, saying they were duped and defrauded like other investors, and that they welcome the leagueâ€s investigation.

There is no timeline for when that investigation will be complete, but it will not stop the All-Star Game from coming to the Intuit Dome.

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O’Connor has enjoyed the best year of her career in 2025.

European Indoor bronze, World Indoor silver, World University Games gold and now a World Championships silver medal.

As she alluded to in the build-up, O’Connor’s success was made possible by a mindset shift after finishing 14th at last year’s Paris Olympics.

“After Paris I genuinely did have a chat with myself. I felt like I know the athlete that I can be and I had to turn to my dad and ask him did he think that himself and the team that we had around me would be able to bring me to where I wanted to get myself to,” she explained.

“I suppose we had a pretty tough conversation where I kind of set out my goals to him and told him that I was ready to put my head down and work really hard towards them, but I needed everybody else to also be there with me.

“We had to make a few changes where I felt like if the coaches were expecting more of me, I would expect more of myself, so I made sure that I was hitting these really high standards that my coaches are setting for me.”

Going into the World Championships in Tokyo, she aimed to surpass 6,500 points.

She cleared that mark by some distance, with five personal bests helping her reach 6,714 points to come second behind gold medallist Anna Hall of the United States (6,888).

And O’Connor still believes there is more to come as she builds towards the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

“That’s one of the most exciting things for me is that I just scored 6,700 points and there’s so much there right now.

“So, what can I do with another winter behind me and another year behind me and another two years? Then obviously get to the Olympics, which will be another three.

“I don’t think I’ve reached my limit at any of the events.”

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Passing the baton – quite literally – to the next generation, with one final medal secured, an icon bowed out.

Back in Japan, the nation where she made her first appearance on the world stage 18 years ago, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce made the 25th – and last – global podium of her illustrious career.

Nine world championships and five Olympic Games later, the 38-year-old signed off in Tokyo by helping a Jamaican quartet featuring 21-year-old twin sisters Tia and Tina Clayton to world 4x100m silver.

As she posed for photos with her adoring fans in the stands, there was no doubt the record five-time world 100m champion had departed the sport as a legend.

The most decorated female 100m sprinter in history, Fraser-Pryce has missed just one of the sport’s past 15 major global competitions.

That single absence came at the World Championships in London in 2017, when, one day after the 100m final, she gave birth to her son Zyon.

“I have had an amazing career and today’s medal is the icing on the cake,” said Fraser-Pryce, the third-fastest woman in history with a personal best of 10.60 seconds.

“My son will be excited. Today is a full circle moment for me, I was a reserve at my first world championships in Japan in 2007. I couldn’t have it any other way.

“I am grateful for the medals, the stadiums and the crowds where I have competed throughout my career.

“I have some plans and I want to focus on advocacy, and support women and athletes. I want to continue to make an impact.”

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