CJ McCollum Interviews NBA's Adam Silver

CJ McCollum, the Blazer guard who majored in journalism at Lehigh University, interviewed NBA Commissioner Adam Silver this week. The interview can be found at ThePlayers'Tribune.com. McCollum covered a range of topics with the commissioner that included Silver's take-aways from his first full season as Commissioner, the NBA's One and Done Rule, player safety concerning head injuries, on-jersey sponsors, and the "last two minute" report on referee decisions.

McCollum: Another big change that the NBA recently implemented is the Last Two Minute Report on referee decisions. I'm a fan of it personally. I like to see whether crucial calls were mistakes or not. I think it's good that they take that initiative. But what do you think about it?

Silver: I think it has been very well received. And part of what we are stressing in the league is transparency. I think it's important that our fans understand that while our officials aren't going to get every call right, it's critically important that we acknowledge when they don't. And I think what the Last Two Minute Report also allows for is for fans to see just how often NBA officials are right. I think that ultimately what the reports help with is it keeps us all accountable for our work.

And number two, it strengthens the integrity of our league because fans believe that there's always going to be conspiracy theories out there. We say if a mistake was made, we acknowledge it, and then we furthermore try to explain why that official made the mistake. For example, using Steve Javie, a former official, on ESPN has been very helpful for educating fans and media when a call is wrong, why did the official get it wrong? Was the official in that moment trying to view a player's feet rather than a player's hands for example? Or was the official simply out of position? So I think the Last Two Minute Report has been very helpful towards increasing competence by our officials.

McCollum also asked some out-of-the-box questions: favorite Jay Z lyric, who is on Silver's NBA Mount Rushmore and a host of rapid response 'On The Table or Nah' questions.

You can find McCollum's last year interview with Adam Silver here.

Who would show up on your NBA Mount Rushmore? Let us know in the comments.