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Adam Silver 'chuckled a little' at Michael Jordan's super-team comments

Adam Silver laughed at Michael Jordan’s super-team comments.
Adam Silver laughed at Michael Jordan’s super-team comments.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver isn’t too bothered with Michael Jordan’s critical comments on NBA super-teams, saying they should be taken with a ‘grain of salt.’

In an interview on Mike and Mike on ESPN Monday morning, Silver was responding to Jordan’s comments in Cigar Aficionado magazine, when he said super-teams were hurting the overall aspect of the league from a competitive standpoint.

“You’re going to have one or two teams that are going to be great, and another 28 teams that are going to be garbage,” said Jordan, the Charlotte Hornets owner. “Or they’re going to have a tough time surviving in the business environment.”

In the Mike and Mike interview, Silver said he “chuckled a little” hearing the “most competitive athlete in the history of all of sports is frustrated his team isn’t predicted to win the championship this year.”

“I take it with a bit of a grain of salt,” Silver said. “And also, here’s a guy who in his last six full seasons as a Chicago Bull won the championship. So at the time everybody defined that Bulls team as a “super-team.” I think there’s a recognition that in this sport, with combinations of certain players, they are going to be superior. To me, as I said towards the end of last season, we should celebrate excellence.”

Silver continued, adding the Golden State Warriors’ dominance is a good thing for the sport and isn’t going to advocate anytime soon for the disbandment of a “truly great team.” The Warriors are starting the season as the odds-on favorites to win the NBA championship for the second-straight year. They open their season Tuesday night against the Houston Rockets.

“Before we talk about breaking up a truly great team, especially one that was largely built through the draft — I get it [Kevin] Durant came as a free agent — but when you have Steph [Curry] as the seventh pick, Klay [Thompson] as the 11th, Draymond [Green] at the 35th pick, Steve Kerr doing an incredible job, Bob Myers as the GM, to me, it raises the bar for all teams in the league and it’s something that rather then teams sitting around and saying ‘We can’t possible compete against the Golden State Warriors,’ you’d like to think the collection of the very best players in the world on the 29 other teams would have the Warriors in their sights,” Silver said.

Also on Mike and Mike, Silver discussed the era of one-and-done players and said a “clear change will come.”