At the moment, there is no shortage of people choosing the N.B.A.

The league had its second highest attendance ever this season, with most arenas nearing capacity, as measured by tickets sold and distributed. National television ratings were down about 5 percent, a fall that followed last year’s four-season high and may have something to do with LeBron James’s being hurt and playing for a terrible team. Silver said he wasn’t particularly worried, given that there are six years remaining on the league’s $24 billion television agreement. The league is aggressively expanding internationally and beginning to gain real revenue overseas, especially in China.

“The sound you hear is me knocking on my wooden table,” Silver said. “It is our job to look around corners, but I think everything is going spectacularly right now.”

Everything is perfect, it seems, if you’re still awake to see it.

The league’s two biggest draws, James and the Warriors, play most of their games when half of the country is already asleep.

“We don’t run from it,” said Silver. “LeBron, to have been in the finals eight consecutive years, and have him play in the East, it’s just math. Fifty percent of the country’s television market is on the East Coast.”

The absence of James from the playoffs has been felt, with viewership down 15 percent compared with last year, according to Nielsen. Ratings have also been hurt by Toronto’s deep run — Canadian viewership isn’t tracked by Nielsen — and by the Warriors’ sweep of Portland in the Western Conference finals.