Adam Silver says NBA will eventually adopt AI-automated system to review out-of-bounds calls

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Late in the third quarter Tuesday night in Oklahoma City, where the San Antonio Spurs hoped to enter the final frame down only single digits in a pivotal Game 5 of the Western Conference finals, the officials botched an out-of-bounds call.

Despite the ball bouncing off the foot of Thunder forward Chet Holmgren, Spurs center Victor Wembanyama was assessed a turnover. The fact that Holmgren was the true culprit was clear as day on replay, yet the call remain unchanged even after the officials huddled. Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson pleaded for a challenge but didn’t get one and instead was given a technical after he incessantly vented his frustration.

While that sequence alone didn’t cost San Antonio Game 5, it became a talking point in a larger discussion about officiating after the Thunder took a 3-2 lead in the series.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed that moment during a Wednesday night appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” while revealing that the league will eventually adopt an AI-automated system to review out-of-bounds calls.

Referencing tennis and its line call review system, Silver mentioned Hawk-Eye technology, which is also used for MLB’s new automatic balls and strikes (ABS) challenge system.

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“We're going to move to a system like that where that whole category of calls will be automatic, where it's going to be Laker ball, Knick ball, whatever it is, Thunder ball,” Silver said on “McAfee.”

“Those calls will be done by an AI-automated system with cameras lined around the court, and it'll take all of those so-called objective calls out of the hands of the referees. It'll be instantaneous, it'll be automatic. Just play on.”

Silver added, indirectly calling back to the erroneous Wembanyama turnover: “Let's go, Spurs inbound, and you move on. You won't have to deal with challenges on those calls.”

Silver purported that making those calls automated will allow officials to focus on what he deemed the “subjective calls.”

“There's often contact on every play,” Silver said. “It doesn't mean there's a foul, and they're trying to measure whether that contact is impeding the player, how hard that contact is — it's something that can't just be done on camera. They're actually feeling the contact because they're there on the floor with the players.”

Earlier in that same part of McAfee’s interview with Silver, the commissioner described the league’s officiating as “incredible” while also conceding that it can always be better.

Regarding the ongoing flopping conversation, Silver offered his two-cents.

“I would only say that there's a difference between selling a call, exaggeration and a true flop, which is where you're actually fooling the referees.

“I think sometimes, even as I sit in the stands at games, players may be falling down, players may be reacting to a call. But then, to me, if they're not fooling the referees, it's like, 'OK, the players are taught to sell calls these days.’“

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