Friday, June 15, 2012

Commissioner Stern...Really?!

David Stern has been the commissioner of the National Basketball Association since 1984. In that time, Stern has conducted himself and his league in a relatively fair manner. Never putting the NBA in bad light and always being a very good interview. As far back as I can remember, David Stern has been my favorite commissioner of the three big leagues in North America (MLB, NFL, NBA). Now remember, no commissioner's slate will be clean, everyone has their controversies. I can take controversies within the league i.e. lockouts, suspensions, etc.., but the ONE THING a commissioner should be able to do, is professionally answer a controversial question without looking like a complete five year old.

Earlier this week, Jim Rome posed a question to Stern on his Radio show about the lockout being rigged. This has been a longtime speculation by many close to the NBA so the question seems logical except that no one has the guts to ask about the big elephant in the room. Leave it to Rome to go ahead and ask about said elephant. Usually Rome is very up front and seems rude at times within his show and I for one have never been a big fan, but for once, Rome did a great job prefacing the question to Stern. What was Sterns response? "Uh...I'm going to answer that two ways..." followed by, "Have you stopped beating your wife?".
The fact that Stern back tracked so fast tells me something is fishy in the NBA front office. But for a commissioner to take a personal shot at a journalist is beyond unprofessional! Rome handled himself as best he could for the rest of the interview. After some research, I found no evidence of Rome having any kind of domestic abuse issues and this is clearly a commissioner being surprised by a question and reacting like an adolescent.

Following the interview, the NBA released an ever more adolescent press release, backing the commissioner  because it was a "loaded question". Of course it was a loaded question, your league is under speculation for stroking the ego's of the new owner for the Hornets, a team that the NBA owns. And, after your commissioner made a fool of himself, the league follows suit. It shouldn't surprise us that Stern reacted this way, this is the same man who doesn't seem to mind that college kids who only attend college one year before going to the NBA receive zero education above high school, which makes for some very immature press conferences in the post season simply because the player never attended a public speaking class.

Commissioner Stern, go back to school and learn how to handle a tough question, take your athletes with you, Lord knows they need it too. Your run as NBA commissioner took a very ugly turn last week and those of us that have an education in journalism didn't appreciate it. That's how I see it.

-JNM.

1 comment:

  1. I completely agree with you on the issue that college basketball players need a stricter draft regiment regarding education. These kids come into the NBA ignorant and acting like hot shit when in reality they are just there for the points. These kids need to have at least two years at their respected universities understanding how to behave professionally so that when the media gets to them they aren't smart asses that only know three words to every question. The NBA's policy about staying a year in college is affected college basketball as well. Look at the winning team of UK. How many of those players are going to be on the team next year? The whole chemistry of that team is ruined and UK will not be seeing another win anytime soon. If those boys stayed with UK at least two years I could pretty much guarantee that UK would be unstoppable. Why isn't it an issue for these colleges to stand up and say that education is more important than a game. Colleges would get more money in their pocket if they respected the education of every student athletic or not.

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