Intro:

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver raised the possibility of playing a game in Australia during his pre-finals news conference in Oakland, California on Thursday (4th June).

Script:

SOUNDBITE (English) Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner:

(On the possibility of playing an NBA game in Australia)

"It's great to see Australian players in the finals (Golden State Warriors centre Andrew Bogut, Cleveland Cavaliers back-up guard Matthew Dellavedova and Cavaliers Australian-born guard Kyrie Irving). I've been to that market, your market with the NBA a couple times. With the sort of ebb and flow in our business, there was an ebb in essence in interest based a decade ago, and we focused our interest on other markets. But we're seeing a real surge in popularity. I see it in terms of all the digital media data we have, the number of broadband League passes that we sell in Australia. So I think it will be something we'll look at. It's obviously a long trip, but we'd love to bring teams back there. We'd love to play a game back in Australia."

SOUNDBITE (English) Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner:

(Talking about growing global interest in the NBA)

"We used to be defined more by those geographical boundaries. You had northeast Ohio or the Bay Area, and now while we have incredibly passionate fans of those teams in those areas, there really is a global community of fans right now. And so that greater calling speaks to young people throughout the world, families throughout the world. And I think LeBron (James) said it well in that essay where he said the reason he was returning to northeast Ohio, in part had something to do with a calling much greater than the game itself. And I'd say just to end with this thought that while only one champion will emerge from these finals, that what we're seeing in terms of every team in this league, and really every player in this league, has taken on that greater responsibility to be part of a larger basketball community. I think that the NBA has become defined not just by the incredible competition on the floor, but what we're doing in communities throughout the world and not just in our team cities."