The NBA has benefitted from the strong, long-standing relationships Bob Iger has had with both Adam Silver and Chris Paul in negotiating a return-to-play plan.

Silver's relationship with Iger dates back to when he was the head of NBA Entertainment in the mid-1990s. Iger met his future wife, Willow Bay, when she was the anchor of Inside Stuff.

When Paul was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers in 2011, he reached out to Iger in hopes of mentorship.

"It's just sort of coincidental," Iger said. "I've got this relationship with Chris, I have this relationship with Adam, and I happen to have run the Walt Disney Company for a while. So it all kind of comes together in trying to figure out how we get the NBA back."

Both Iger and Silver also similarly sought out information on COVID-19 beginning in January.

"In the early weeks of this, I spent a significant amount of my time speaking with experts on testing, on all different kinds of protocol, trying to learn as much as I can," Iger said. "And almost everyone that I spoke with would say to me, 'Oh, I just talked to Adam Silver.'

"So, finally I called Adam and said, 'Why don't we compare notes?'"