This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Adam Silver wanted to set the record straight Wednesday night, when he made his first appearance in Utah since taking over as commissioner in February.

"It's just a coincidence that Quin Snyder went to Duke as I did and I'm here for his first game," Silver told a roomful of reporters at EnergySolutions Arena.

Instead it was simply to check a stop in Salt Lake off his list.

That stop is considered small market around the league, by the way. But Silver said he's "seeing in the league those distinctions (between small and big markets) are becoming much less important."

To that point, Silver cited a few reasons:

• "Increased national and international revenue that's divided equally among the teams, with a dollop of revenue sharing added to that, enables every team to compete." The league's new television deal, which is roughly triple the existing deal, certainly helps there.

• An increasingly global market makes national market sizes less relevant.

• The growth of social media is "transforming this business," allowing fans worldwide to better follow teams and players.

For Silver, success in San Antonio, Indiana and Oklahoma City are proof of a lessening small market/big market divide.

"That's what I want to run is a 30-team league," Silver said, "where every team and every market has the opportunity to run a sound, stable business and compete for championships."

Silver, who was in San Antonio last night for the Spurs' ring ceremony, lauded the Jazz and the Miller family, the league's second-longest tenured ownership.

"We see it in the work they're doing here with the franchise," he said. "The franchise is a first-class team in every possible way. … The team is looking terrific. Dennis Lindsey is doing a fantastic job."

He also hit a few other issues:

• The league has "no imminent plans for expansion," but Silver can envision a time when there are NBA teams in Europe.

"I don't think it's realistic, unless there's some new aircraft I'm not familiar with, to expand to Asia. … But I think Europe is doable when you think about the travel time from East Coast to West Coast and East Coast to Europe."

The NFL has discussed a franchise in London, but unlike football, the NBA would need to have an entire division overseas as opposed to a one-off franchise.

• The NBA's 44-minute preseason game experiment was a success in Silver's eyes, simply because it focused attention on the issue of improving the pace and length of games overall.

"We have a 2 1/2-hour TV window and we think that's the right length," he said. "It tends to creep longer. Part of it is our fault because of the commercials. Part of it is the coaches' fault because of the time outs they call."

Silver said the NBA is "highly unlikely" to ever change the total game time, but said he expects changes in commercial and timeout formats at some point.

— Aaron Falk