Joel Litvin

Joel Litvin began his career at the NBA in 1988 as a staff attorney, rising to the position of President, League Operations in 2006, until he stepped down in 2015, after 27 years with the league.

As President, League Operations, Litvin was in charge of numerous areas of the NBA’s business, including legal affairs, collective bargaining, basketball operations, security, social responsibility, and player development. He ran the league’s approval process for team transactions such as sales, relocations, and financings and served as the chief liaison between the league and the NBA Board of Governors on a wide range of business, competition, and governance issues.

Working with the NBA Board of Governors, Litvin led the development of the league’s revenue sharing plans, which enable small market teams to be competitive and profitable, and oversaw the creation of the first escrow/tax system in a professional sports labor agreement. On the basketball side, Litvin led a significant expansion of the league’s use of instant replay and developed the comprehensive, data-driven program the NBA uses to evaluate and train referees.

Prior to assuming his position of President, League Operations in 2006, Litvin served as the league’s Executive Vice President and General Counsel.

After leaving the NBA, Litvin has worked as a sports consultant including for the ATP, the XFL, the Crown League, G2 Strategic, FutureSports, and Joseph Tsai in connection with his successful bid for the Brooklyn Nets. He has also done expert witness work.

Litvin has been co-teaching (with Alan Ostfield) the Business of Professional Sports Leagues and Franchises in the Columbia Sports Management program since 2018. Prior to that, he served as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Penn State Law School and as a Professor in the Master of Sports Law program at Instituto Superior de Derecho y Economia. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Las Vegas Sphere and, prior to that, Madison Square Garden Networks, Inc. He has also served on the boards of Hunger Free America, USA Climbing, and the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

Litvin is also the co-founder and director of the Animal Defense Partnership, an animal welfare nonprofit. 

Litvin lives in Hastings-on-Hudson, New York, and New York City with his wife Lisa. His adult children are Jesse, a graduate of Tufts University, and Jane, a graduate of Brown University.