Yeah, it's a totally different era. Different makeup of other owners, where media-savvy tech billionaires, international investors, and media conglomerates make up a significant voice of the ownership group... not that all of these people have great ethics, but they are much more PR conscious. As well, the fact that players themselves have such strong voices as a result of social media would make it much more difficult for the NBA to control a story the way they might have 15 years ago. As well, it was important for Silver to differentiate himself from Stern, and it's difficult to say whether Stern would have chosen the stiffest punishment possible.
Regardless of the reasons, it's great that he's on his way out, although I still shake my head at how much money he'll make by simply holding onto the franchise and putting the absolute minimum into it.
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