Speaker Profile

Adam Silver was appointed NBA Commissioner on Feb. 1, 2014.

Silver presides over a global sports and media organization built around five professional sports leagues:  the NBA, WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League.  Under his leadership, the leagues are dedicated to growing basketball around the world, promoting health and fitness, and using the sport to bring people together.

Silver joined the NBA in 1992.  Prior to becoming commissioner, he served as NBA Deputy Commissioner and Chief Operating Officer, President and Chief Operating Officer of NBA Entertainment, NBA Chief of Staff, and Special Assistant to the Commissioner.

Silver has been instrumental to many of the league’s signature achievements, including the development of the WNBA, NBA G League, NBA 2K League and Basketball Africa League; the creation of the NBA’s digital assets; and the establishment of NBA China and NBA Africa.

Silver was recognized by the Sports Business Journal as its Executive of the Decade and has been ranked No. 1 on its annual list of the 50 Most Influential People in the Sports Business.  He was also named to TIME’s 100 Most Influential People, Fortune’s 50 Greatest Leaders, and The Bloomberg 50.  Additionally, he earned Sports Executive of the Year from Sports Illustrated.

Silver is Chair of the Duke University Board of Trustees.  He was presented with Distinguished Alumni Awards from Duke and the University of Chicago Law School and received the University of Chicago’s Professional Achievement Award.  He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on the Board of Trustees for the Rockefeller Foundation, the Paley Center for Media, and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and is Vice Chairman of the Lustgarten Pancreatic Cancer Foundation.

Before joining the NBA, Silver was an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore and previously served as a law clerk to Federal District Court Judge Kimba Wood in New York.  Silver is a graduate of Duke University and the University of Chicago Law School.

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