NBA Commissioner Adam Silver spoke at the league's annual offseason meeting this week in Las Vegas, Nevada on Tuesday (12 July).

SOUNDBITE (English): Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner

(On status of league)

"I'm really encouraged by where the league is today. I think we have a fantastic group of owners. It's a whole new generation of owners that have come into this league over the past several years. I find that these meetings are very productive, people are encouraged to speak up in these meetings and do. Various points of view have been expressed on the whole range of issues I just discussed. I think that the attendance is fantastic for our owners here and the same with the committees that met earlier today. To me this is a great league and we have an opportunity to make it even that much better."

SOUNDBITE (English): Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner

(On NBA's salary cap getting back to normal and competitive balance of league)

"This summer was an anomaly in terms of the system as I made clear before, we did not model for such a large spike in the agreement in the cap, which is what we saw this summer and so it enabled teams to make moves that they not otherwise would have been able to make. And then the question becomes what corrections should we make in the system. As I said from the very beginning, there are two priorities when we went into the last collective bargaining agreement. One was to correct the finances of the league and put every team in a position where if they were well managed they had the opportunity to be profitable. The other issue was we wanted every team regardless of market size, regardless of how deep the pockets were of the owner to be in a position to compete for championships. I will say in terms of so-called competitive balance, we've had five years of now this collective bargaining agreement, going into the sixth year, and we've had four different teams win over the last five years. So I view that very positive from a competitive balance standpoint. And so I also, I don't necessarily want to over react to a particular situation. But having said that, as I said at the end of my early remarks, I think we can make the system even better."

SOUNDBITE (English): Adam Silver, NBA Commissioner

(On debate about moving next year's All-Star Game from Charlotte because of North Carolina's law limiting protection for LGBT people)

"We feel this law is inconsistent with the core values of this league.The primary test for us is whether under this law we can successfully host our All-Star week. And as you all know, it is more than a game, it's really a week full of activities in North Carolina. And the question for us becomes in this situation, given the controversy, given the amount of discussion, given how hardened the views are there, is this the place we should be in February 2017, at the epicenter of global basketball where we can go and celebrate our game and our values.''