David Letterman hosted NBA commissioner Adam Silver on CBS’s Monday night broadcast of “The Late Show with David Letterman” and asked him where the league stands on players protesting things by either turning their pregame warm-ups inside out in protest of the ownership, or with T-shirts protesting other things that have happened.
According to Silver, he would prefer that they would wear the league uniforms, but it felt appropriate to let them express themselves in these situations.
“I think I said at the time in New York when some of the players wore ‘I Can’t Breathe’ T-shirts in honor of the young man who died in Staten Island that it would be my preference they wear the league uniforms, but the players are our partners in the league and, at times, I understand that they want to express their opinions. It’s difficult sometimes to know where to draw the line. I think in that particular circumstance, because it was an issue that so many players believed in, it was something that I discussed with the Players Association. We decided to let the players express themselves in that way, but they, of course, have so many other platforms with the media before and after games, on their own time, etc.”
Silver went on to say “I think in this case, though, truly this league is a partnership with our players and again, Chris Paul, who is the president of the union, I spoke to him about it, I spoke to some other players about, they felt very strongly about it and it felt appropriate here that it wasn’t a good opportunity for me to step in as commissioner and say we should start fining you or other course of discipline.”
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