Adam Silver: AI Will Give Us ‘Most Significant Change’ in Presentation of Sports

1. All-Star weekend is the time for a commissioner to put a positive spin on everything related to his league. Adam Silver did his best to do that on Saturday when he waxed poetic about artificial intelligence.

It’s Silver’s job to sell his league in the best way possible. Still, with so much talk in recent weeks about the terrible state of the NBA, it was a little odd to hear Silver praise AI for changing everything in sports.

The phrases “read the room” and “optics” get overused. And two things can be true at once. The NBA regular season is a complete joke and AI is going to have a big impact on sports fans. Yet, for Silver to be all giddy about AI changes that don’t even seem that significant was odd.

“As I look at the world and the predictions, and we’re seeing much of it already on how AI is changing everything about our personal lives, our business lives, for me, there’s no doubt AI will have the same impact on sports,” said Silver.

“One area in particular that I think is worth addressing is impact on the fan experience. One of the things we’re beginning to see already is how we’re going to, more than personalize, almost hyper-personalize our telecasts.

“Allowing people to experience the game in any way they want. Many of you have probably experimented with this already, but in essence you’ll be able to hear the game in any dialect, any language, you’ll be able to hear a hardcore X’s and O’s commentary, maybe one that’s more comedic if that’s what you’re interested in, or a novice explaining each foul and the rules as it goes along.

“To me, we’re about to witness the most significant change certainly in my lifetime to how sports are presented. Beyond that, in the hyper-personalized, if people want to shop during a game, or if they want to be on social media and having an ongoing discussion about some aspect of the game, I think it’s a really exciting moment and transformation.”

For starters, what Silver described here doesn’t seem that radical or enticing. Alternate broadcasts that are AI? More analytic broadcasts? Those are things to get excited about? I don’t get it.

Sports are all about the human connection. The human emotions of winning and losing. When it comes to announcers, sports fans appreciate those who have passion and take you on the ride of a sporting event. I can’t speak for all fans, but I’d imagine the vast majority still want actual human beings calling games. In addition, the thing sports fans love to do more than anything is talk sports with other sports fans. Not artificial sports fans.

I’m also not sure NBA fans are going to care about being able to shop while they watch a game when the league has so many issues, starting with players regularly skipping games for load management.

We have seen games in recent weeks where teams have benched three, four or five starters. Nothing AI can do will offset that issue. The change the NBA needs isn’t in how it presents the games to fans. The change the NBA needs is to the on-court product.

I understand that Silver has to try to sell the AI thing, but he just came off like a clueless Michael Scott-type here being all excited about AI improvements to the fan experience while the league is currently feeling the heat for load management and tanking.

2. There was more weirdness from Silver this weekend. Here’s what he said about the new NBA broadcast deals on Sunday:

“We have a very young audience, and people were predicting that ratings would go down because our audience wouldn’t find the games since they were no longer on cable. It’s been the exact opposite. So many of our young fans were disenfranchised by traditional cable because the data is clear—they’re just not subscribing to cable packages. They’re spending their time on streaming services. So by virtue of ESPN now, you can get that directly as a streaming service, obviously Amazon Prime, Peacock, NBC—our fans are finding those games in record numbers.”

Actually, the complete opposite is true. Nobody said the ratings would go down because young people wouldn’t be able to find the games. Silver literally said it himself. Young people do not have cable. Young audiences know how to find things on streaming. Young fans only know a streaming world. It’s people 40 and over who would have trouble finding the games.

And streaming doesn’t compare to broadcast. According to Sports Media Watch, nine of the 10 most watched NBA games this season have aired on broadcast television (NBC and ABC).

In addition, there’s this nugget from Sports Media Watch:

“Prime Video is averaging 1.06 million across its 44 games so far this season. For the windows that can be compared directly to last season—30 total—the streamer is averaging 1.21 million, down 7%.”

Maybe the numbers can be spun that NBA fans are streaming in record numbers, but those numbers are far from impressive.

3. I said this once before in this column and I’ll say it again: One of the NBA’s broadcast partners should find a way, if at all possible, to make President Barack Obama part of their coverage. The guy knows how to provide good content.

Reggie Miller: "Do you have a favorite moment during that time in Chicago during the '90s?"

Barack Obama: "I always enjoyed watching us beat Indiana." 🏀🔥🎙️ #NBA #NBC pic.twitter.com/rCzmUBNU90
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 15, 2026

4. This video was very well done.

Superbowl LX in case you missed it

credit: @ari_fararooy pic.twitter.com/z8e1dTVaQj
— Joel Smith 🇻🇪 Superbowl Champion (@joelsmith) February 16, 2026

5. For my fellow Chris “Mad Dog” Russo fans, this is an unbelievable find.

A young Christopher "Mad Dog" Russo (@MadDogUnleashed) in 1991 talking with Fran Healy about the Baseball Hall of Fame and playing at the same golf course as Joe DiMaggio. pic.twitter.com/OdUNDNf68x
— Gershon Rabinowitz (@GershOnline) February 16, 2026

6. The latest episode of SI Media With Jimmy Traina is an all-Traina Thoughts post-Super Bowl episode with Sal Licata from SNY and The Sal Licata Show.

Topics discussed include Seattle’s win over New England, Super Bowl betting, my horrific “bad beat” which ended up getting mentioned on SportsCenter and DraftKings parlays being a total disaster on Super Bowl Sunday.

Non-Super Bowl topics covered include good news for YouTubeTV subscribers, the rise of prediction market platforms and how Mark Wahlberg caused controversy for them last weekend, the Olympics, pricing at sporting events, an apology after a listener complaint, a funny story about my appearance on Richard Deitsch’s podcast, the Scrubs reboot and more.

You can listen to the SI Media With Jimmy Traina podcast below or on Apple and Spotify.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy Presidents’ Day to my fellow old school WWF fans.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on X and Instagram.