Interview With David Stern

We caught up with David Stern as he was leaving a restaurant in LA. He was reluctant to speak with us but we managed to get some insight from him on the current NBA labor impasse.

Interviewer: Can you tell us what happens next? Talks have broken off. What is the position of the owners.

Stern: I hate to be the bearer of bad news but if we cannot come to an agreement by 3 PM today, I am afraid that the NBA will not be playing any games until 2021. And it could be even longer than that…right up until the time that the Social Security trust fund runs out of money.

Interviewer: Is there no light at the end of the tunnel? The players want to play and have agreed to give back 4% points on the BRI pool of money.

Stern: We need nothing less than a 50/50 split and if this thing goes on much longer we will probably ask for a 55/45 split owners to players because the owners have a right to make a profit …it’s their business.

Interviewer: Many questions have been raised about the accounting methods utilize by the owners that has, in several cases, resulted in significant losses. Would you care to comment on that?

Stern: not really.

Interviewer: Do you think that more NBA players will opt to play overseas during the strike.

Stern: That was something we did not expect to see. My vision of Global basketball did not contemplate competition from them Euros. But most of the guys going over there are scrubs who are willing to make a few hundred thousand dollars.

Interviewer: What about the marquee players? They seem to be sitting pretty during the lockout.

Stern: Yea..that’s a problem…fat heads like…and I am not going to mention any names…KG should leave the negotiations to the professionals. Things can get really testy when players show up at these meetings and all they want to do is spit in your face.

Interviewer: So if the players union hits you up before 3 PM and agree with a 50/50 split can we get the season started?

Stern: Absolutely! I think our request is reasonable. The players can easily give up one of their diamond stud earrings. We must have a 50/50 split!

dboss

No hoops till 2021? Typo or what?

beat

Beat...not a typo...

Can we have some fun?

bob

realized it was in jest, but the date part was somehow not connected to the rest of it in my brain.

You know the low flying plane syndrome. It is still over my head.

beat

If the lockout/strike goes until 2021, hopefully Condoleeza Rice will be in office by that time and will interviene to get the NBA functioning. Otherwise, the owners will expect the players to give everything back and then the plantation/slavery analogy will be appropriate, and Rev. Sharpton, and Jesse Jackson will be saying, "Told Ya' So."

To anyone:

I'm glad Stern opted not to mention any player names. I guess singling out KG by his initials doesn't qualify.

I'm so glad kindergarten wasn't invented in our town until I was one year older than "kindergarten age." Having to endure kindergarten rhetoric twice in a lifetime would have been too much to endure.

I'm also glad to have lived during Basketball Camelot. For one reason or another (including some serendipity), players had their role, owners had their role, fans had their role, and even referees had their role—and, perhaps best of all, agents had no role. For the most part, they all just shut up and played their roles, and they put out an excellent product that sustained a struggling league until Larry and Magic took it to another level.

And for those who would talk about virtual slave labor on the part of the old players, I never knew any who felt that way. They enjoyed their modest celebrity, were rewarded with speaking engagements that meant more in terms of recognition than in terms of income, and supplemented their basketball incomes in the off-season, thereby broadening their personal values. And, oh yeah, the Celtics also supplemented their income by winning, winning, winning. And most of them are at least financially comfortable today. And I've been fortunate to have exemplary role models I could be proud of decade after decade. What a concept!

I'm sorry not to have much commentary on this matter. I find that my flossing habit has become accentuated while this nonsense swirls all about me. When a bicuspid becomes more important than a lifelong avocation, things are pretty tough.

Sam

Dear board members.

My thread was in jest..filled with enough facts to provoke some measure of commentary.

Basically it is all for a good laugh.

You do remember all the make believe interviews I did with doc and danny and anyone else connected with the Celtics...

Of course there is a very serious side to this. A protracted strike is just plain distasteful for all of us.

Dboss,

I miss those make believe interviews. Not a lot of material to work with right now.

Sam

I can remember the days when the Celtuldics didn't have enough money to make payroll. Red took the money out of his own pocket to help Walter Brown pay those players so that they would have money to feed their families. Many is the day when the payroll was late. How many players today would put up with that scenerio?

We all took your post in jest, dboss. God knows we are running out of things to post here and keep it lively!!!

Rosalie

I think it is very possible that this thing could really go on for a long time particularly if the low end players are able to play outside of the country and the high end players have stashed enough money away. We could lose the entire season.

It seems that older teams would be hurt by this more. Inactivity may make it impossible for the older players to get back to a high level of intensity. Like an old boxer coming out of retirement.

dboss

Dboss,

I'm on the fence about the impact of the delay on older players. I suppose it could be argued that a shorter season would be to their advantage in terms of energy conservation and reduced likelihood of injuries.

I thought the early demise of the Red Sox would act as a double whammy on my personal interest in sports, since I follow the Sox as closely as the Celts. But I find myself pretty happily occupied as I tune into the Patriots and Bruins. If it's so easy for me to be otherwise entertained, what's it like for Celtics followers who aren't as fanatical as I am?

Sam

I, too, am a huge Patriot fan. Hockey has never been my "thing" but if I am truly bored, I will tune them in. The problem with football is it is one game a week, so the rest of the week is filled with the retoric of all the sportscasters
out there. Everyone becomes a genius during these weeks, who is good, who should be dropped, who is overrated, etc, etc.....

I am the kind of a basketball fan who will sit on the edge of my seat waiting for this impasse to resolve itself. I will be here when it does, and I will return to the same position in my living room night after night. I truly bleed Green~

So, you can say that I am impatient with all of this, others have interests
that will keep them occupied.

Sam

You make a good point...perhaps a reduced season would actually help some of the older Celtics play at a high level of intensity in a shortened season.

The latest news indicates that talks are going to resume. This is great news. I think if the players agree to the 50/50 split and get some other concessions from the owners (free agency, length of contracts, penision issues, etc) a deal may be in the works.

We really have tons of issues to delve into regarding the Celtics (free agents, rookies...)

I am an optimist and as such , I think we will be watching the Celtics play basketball sooner rather than later.

dboss

Dboss,

Yeah, there should be no shortage of topics to discuss if and when the games are ordered to begin.

I like to think Danny has already begun the gradual process of transitioning from older nucleus to a younger, more athletic nucleus. And, in a league that is quickly becoming dominated by young point guards, the Celtics will be represented quite well in that category. Otherwise, I'll watch with interest the possible passing of the torch from KG to Davis and/or Johnson, from Pierce to Green, and from Ray to Delonte, Bradley or someone else. Any or all of those possibilities could herald a more uptempo attack? I know that would please both of us immensely.

My omission of the center position is deliberate, as I have no idea what will happen there. Could an abbreviated season make it easier for Danny to hire one or two placeholders to supplement Jermaine at center this season and then to turn KG's cap slot into Dwight Howard next season? Could Johnson plus a strength development program offer some long-term center potential?

I expect the resumption of basketball could easily unleash a tsunami of discussions on this board and elsewhere.

Sam