Video: NBA Commissioner Opens Up About Ben Simmons Trade Saga

NBA commissioner Adam Silver held a media availability during all-star weekend and was as open and honest as they come. Silver is regarded as one of the best leaders in major sports and always seems so in tune with the game and the future of basketball. One thing he would love to see less of moving forward, trade saga like we saw between the Philadelphia 76ers and Ben Simmons.

Silver admitted the situation with Simmons and the 76ers was very complicated and pointed out the fact tension and trade requests happen all the time but this instance was certainly different. Not knowing how to fix it at the moment, Silver commented and it's obvious he prefers to avoid a situation like this moving forward:

I don’t have something specific in mind that can prevent a situation like this. But I think we and the players have a collective common interest in ensuring that contracts are honored. Again, it’s no secret that I’ve expressed my unhappiness with public trade demands. In the case of Ben Simmons, I don’t think — I can’t think of a change to the system that to the extent you have a player that is willing to sit out and not be paid, which is the scenario we have right now. I don’t want to speak for Ben, but that was the posture we saw in that case of a player saying that, ‘I’m unhappy in the city, and I’m not going to play. And you had a team saying, ‘We’re not going to pay you, and there’s going to be discipline.’ There’s a stalemate. Of course, as the commissioner of this league, we want our players to be happy. We want them to find themselves in situations where they think they can be most productive. At the same time, we want to run an orderly league, and so like a lot of things in life, we have to find the appropriate balance there