Former Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban says that NBA commissioner Adam Silver gave the wrong answer when he was asked about the increasing cost of watching NBA games starting next season.
Silver drew the ire of several fans when he told reporters during a press conference after the NBA Board of Governors meeting last Wednesday that if fans can’t afford to pay for the league’s new streaming services to watch the games live, then they have the option to watch game highlights for free on YouTube and other social media outlets.
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“There’s a huge amount of our content that people can essentially consume for free,” Silver said. “This is very much a highlights-based sport. So, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter — you name it, any service, the New York Times, for that matter, your content is not behind a paid firewall. There’s an enormous amount of content out there — YouTube — another example, that is advertising-based, that consumers can consume.”
Cuban thought Silver missed on his answer.
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The NBA is pricing out its fans and telling them the league is about highlights
Mark didn’t explain his tweet and say where Silver flopped, because if you analyze his statement, there were at least two controversial points worth talking about.
One, by insinuating that if fans can’t afford to pay for the services, they can always go watch YouTube or TikTok, he is essentially pricing out not only the league’s current watcher and losing the future generation, as well as this “I don’t care” attitude is going to rub off the wrong way.
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Another miss on Silver’s statement was calling the NBA a highlights-based sport.
The NBA is at a period where its TV ratings are down because fans don’t think players are playing the right way. They either look for the dunk or settle for the three, which has not only made the current NBA game boring to watch but also shows that players today don’t know or care about the fundamentals of the game, as long as they can hit the 3-pointer and slam the basketball.
The NBA’s streaming era
After signing a mammoth $75 million TV deal with the Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime last June, the NBA will begin a new era in broadcasting its games, where nothing is free anymore.
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Well, sort of.
As Cuban noted, some teams are offering free broadcasts via local TV. However, these exclude the big games.
“Since local TV broadcasts have imploded, most teams are offering free local broadcasts. So fans can see their team except on the national exclusives,” he replied to a query on Twitter.
What fan can’t watch on local TV, he can always watch live and on demand via the NBA League Pass app. However, there is a subscription fee of $139 per year and $159.99 for the premium subscription.
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If not, there are various streaming services like SlingTV, DirecTV Stream, Fubo, Hulu+Live and Max.
However, these costs $10 to $85 per month, depending on the provider and package.
So yes, while there may still be some free NBA games on TV, it’s not the big matchups that fans are excited to see.
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Sep 13, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.