NBA Commissioner Adam Silver reportedly listed amid potential successors for Disney CEO Bob Iger

The Yahoo Finance Live team discusses reports NBA Commissioner Adam Silver could be considered as a possible successor to Disney CEO Bob Iger.

Editor's note: In this video we identified Dana Walden's title as Disney Co-Chairman, it is more accurate to identify her as Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman.

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- My play is Disney. With the clock still ticking on Bob Iger's second stint as CEO, speculation is swirling regarding his succession plan. With that, Fox Business Reporter Charles Gasparino reporting over the weekend that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver leads the short list. Gasparino says other names on that list of possible successors include Candle Media co-Founder and co-CEO Kevin Mayer, Disney co-Chairman Dana Walden.

As for Silver, I contacted the NBA's chief communications officer. He said we have no comment on that Silver report. The commissioner is under contract with the NBA through the 2024 NBA Finals, which kind of adds speculation here because Iger has said he'll stay on at Disney for two years, which would end in late '24. More? Well, the NBA's media deal for which Disney is expected to bid expires after the 24-25 season.

So there's a lot of fuel to this fire. Disney shares flat really today. Up 13% this year. If you want my best guess here, I think Adam Silver has one of the best jobs in America. He's excellent at it. I think he is the best commissioner in all of professional sports. He makes a boatload of money. And he has a lifetime of job security. It's a great job at Disney. Don't get me wrong. His comp would increase. I don't think he's going anywhere.

- But expanding on Adam Silver, though, and making sense of maybe why-- it could be that Disney sees him as a candidate more so than Adam Silver sees himself as a potential Disney CEO. And I think when you think about Silver and what he's built out when he was working on the NBA entertainment side and sort of their media property there. And then you think about the characters. We've talked a lot about this with what maybe Netflix should copy from Disney in some ways.

But Adam Silver has really built the NBA in this next generation around characters when you talk about like a Steph Curry and what they've done with the Warriors and how that relates to Disney's brand in some ways where you have shows. You have popular characters.

- Franchises.

- You franchise them. And you build around them. So I think you can see the comp there for maybe why Disney might like Silver. You have a great point, Dave. All three of us love sports. I think if I was ever a professional sports commissioner, I'd probably rather do that and hang out and watch games and do that part of the job rather than do earnings calls. But maybe that's just us.

- Yeah. I was going to say you make a very compelling case as to why Disney would have the focus on Adam Silver. If Adam Silver, though, isn't in the mix, if he decides that the NBA is for him, he doesn't want to take on the big shoes to fill, that would be Bob Iger, the two other names that you mentioned there, Dave, from Gasparino's reporting in Dana Walden-- she has been in the mix now for quite some time. But Kevin Mayer. His name keeps coming up time and time. Again, remember, he was also rumored to succeed Iger the first time around. Ended up leaving after he was passed over. Was at TikTok for a little bit. I wouldn't be too surprised if we end up settling on Mayer this time around. But we'll see.

- No surprise that names are being floated because Iger has to get it right this time. So you want the media--

- In two years.

- --you want the media to begin vetting these people, whether they have a chance or not. Give it some time for the media to pick apart. He'll get it right.