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New Orleans • The NBA season will start earlier next year, Commissioner Adam Silver said on Saturday.

The league plans to add an extra week to the regular season, Silver confirmed on Saturday in his annual state-of-the-NBA news conference. In doing so, the league will reduce the number of preseason games, which Silver hopes will cut down on teams resting players in marquee games.

"That's why we're adding the extra week to the season," Silver said. "I'm sympathetic to fans who turn out, and don't see their favorite player on the floor. There isn't an easy solution to that problem. One of the ways we can work to minimize the resting is to add a number of days to the schedule, which will add additional rest."

Silver also addressed a number of other issues. He expressed concern at President Donald Trump's travel ban, which was recently overturned in federal court. Silver said he would like to bring the All-Star game to Charlotte; the game was moved to New Orleans because North Carolina established a law that limits access to public facilities for transgender people known as "the bathroom bill."

Silver said the league is in a good place financially, and that he wants the league to expand internationally in the near future.

"The state of the league is as good as it's ever been," Silver said. "The competition on the floor, the diversity of the players. For the fist time this year, we made a somewhat significant leap this season with the international players in the league. We climbed from 20 percent of players born outside of the United States, to 25 percent. And those numbers are only going to continue to grow."

His time to shine

Jazz rookie forward Joel Bolomboy participated in the D-League All-Star game on Saturday, scoring five points on a dunk and a 3-pointer. The former Weber State product planned on staying home during the All-Star break to work on his game, and return to Weber State to take in a game. Then, he was named a replacement for the D-League game and made his way down to New Orleans.

"I just wanted to come down here, represent the Salt Lake City Stars and the Utah Jazz and have fun," Bolomboy said. "I definitely had fun, and I was honored to be here. It's been a great weekend."

Call to the Hall

On Saturday, the Hall Of Fame announced 14 finalists for the class of 2007. Headliners include Chris Webber, Tracy McGrady, Bill Self and Tim Hardaway. The class will be announced Aprl 3.

What shape is it?

Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving made headlines on a recent podcast when he said the Earth was flat. He repeated that mantra this weekend when interviewed by reporters, making his comment one of the most outrageous in recent All-Star weekend lore.

Twitter: @tribjazz