Adam Silver on NBA’s flopping concerns: ‘Players are taught to sell calls’

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Adam Silver on NBA’s flopping concerns: ‘Players are taught to sell calls’

Adam Silver shared several thoughts on NBA matters during an appearance on Pat McAfee's show on ESPN. Alex Slitz / Getty Images

By Devon Henderson

May 28, 2026 Updated

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said team building is poised to improve. While many have questioned the proposed anti-tanking system, which includes lowering the odds for the bottom-three teams, Silver sees the current league leaders as evidence that other avenues to constructing successful rosters exist.

Speaking on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Wednesday, Silver explained why the emphasis on scouting overseas and deep into draft boards will become more important. Silver mentioned that New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson was a second-round pick in 2018, and the stars of the San Antonio Spurs (Victor Wembanyama) and Oklahoma City Thunder (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) both came from outside the United States.

Wembanyama, from France, was the No. 1 selection in 2023, while Gilgeous-Alexander, who is Canadian, was selected No. 11 in 2018.

“You want the greatest incentive to be successful,” Silver said. “So those teams still have very good chances to get a top draft pick, but I’ll just also add that’s not the only way to build a team. It may put more of an emphasis on scouting.

“We’re now at a point where 30 percent of our players are from outside the United States. So you have a much larger pool of players. Rosters are much deeper than where they used to be.” How the Thunder built the deepest roster in the NBA

Under the newly proposed lottery system, the franchises with the bottom three records, considered in the “relegation zone,” drop from a previous 14 percent chance to just a 5.4 percent chance at landing the No. 1 pick. The fourth- through 10th-worst teams now have 8.1 percent odds of landing the first pick.

There have been concerns that teams that genuinely struggle and finish with bottom-three records, without tanking, now have lower odds of improving. Silver considers it fair punishment for losing, similar to the competitive structures used in European soccer. In those leagues, the bottom-three teams in the end-of-year standings get relegated to lower leagues and face significant financial pitfalls as a result.

“There should be a penalty for performing poorly,” the commissioner said. “In real relegation, you’re actually out of the major league. Here, if you’re the worst-performing team in the NBA, you still get your same economic share of national and global television revenue. You still get your same share of national and global merchandising revenue.”

Silver was also asked about concerns surrounding flopping and officiating, specifically regarding the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals. Many believe that Gilgeous-Alexander, who just won his second consecutive regular-season MVP award, has a habit of exaggerating contact for foul calls.

To that, Silver felt it was important to make the distinction between embellishing contact to draw a foul, a genuine part of the game, and actually deceiving the officials.

“Even as I sit in the stands at games, players may be falling down, players may be reacting to a call,” Silver said. “But to me, if they’re not fooling the referees, it’s OK. Players are taught to sell calls these days.” What are NBA lottery picks' favorite LeBron memories? Eric Nehm

Silver agreed the league is “always working on that,” in reference to officiating improving, but he doesn’t see it as a pressing issue and called the league’s officiating “incredible.” He does, however, see a future where, in terms of out-of-bounds calls, the league moves to a system like tennis’ Hawk-Eye system, in which objective calls can be quickly replayed and decided by an automated AI system