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NBA EUROPE LIVE TOUR MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 25, 2009

CHRIS WALLACE: Welcome, everyone. Thank you for joining today's conference call to announce the Chicago Bulls and Utah Jazz' participation in NBA Europe Live 2009 Presented by EA sports.
The Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls will be playing a game at the O2 on October 6th. This will be the third time NBA Europe Live will be in London.
Today we will begin with a statement from NBA Commissioner David Stern, followed by a statement from EA president Peter Moore, which will then be followed by a question-and-answer session.
We'll start with a statement from Mr. David Stern.
COMMISSIONER STERN: Actually, I think Chris Wallace just made my statement. He didn't used to, but since he moved to London, it's been like that (laughter).
In any event, I really am delighted to be here and thank all of you for joining us. As you heard from Chris, on October 6th, we will have the Utah Jazz and the Chicago Bulls, two very young and exciting NBA teams, playing in what is our fourth edition of NBA Europe Live.
We're delighted to be going to the 02 Arena for the third time, and we're even more delighted to be teaming up with a partner in EA Sports, which understands the power of our brand and enhances it with the quality of their products and their reach.
So this is a terrific partnership for us. Obviously we know our teams are excited about going. We know that Luol Deng has a special connection to the market. And he's resting up now, getting ready for the game, possibly the NBA playoffs, too. So thank you for joining us.
Before I turn it over to Peter, each year we've seen new and increased evidence of the passion our NBA fans around the world have for our game. Those number of fans are growing, and we're planning to be there, whether we're live or on television or online or in stores. The partner for us that brings us there, in all areas, is EA Sports.
With that, I'd like to introduce Peter Moore of EA Sports.
PETER MOORE: Thanks, David.
You know, we're also very excited to be in our fourth year as the presenting sponsor for NBA Europe Live. This is a terrific initiative that allows EA Sports to help the NBA expand its global footprint and it's a perfect launch vehicle for our NBA Live franchise in Europe.
NBA Europe Live Presented by EA Sports creates an authentic platform for fans of all ages across Europe to enjoy real-life basketball, as well as our interactive basketball experience, on a grand stage.
Very, very grateful for the opportunity to help evangelize one of the world's greatest sports and for this excellent platform to help us grow in Europe.
Back to you, Chris.
CHRIS WALLACE: Thank you so much, Peter and David. We'd like to open the floor to the media for about 15 minutes of Q&A.

Q. David, the old question: Do you think the third edition at the O2 is a step closer to bringing a regular-season game over?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, I'm running out of runway. I've said we're going to have a regular-season game in London before 2012, before the Olympics. So that means, as I compute it, and I don't know whether I want the wiggle room of saying 'announced' before the Olympics or 'played'. But to me we're dealing with an NBA regular-season game having been projected - not promised - but projected either in 2010, 2011 or 2012.
I think we are moving closer because the response each time has been stronger and the expectation of us announcing a game, whether it's this particular pre-season game or a regular-season game, just continues to grow.
So we're feeling very comfortable in London and we look forward to expanding our relationship with the fans in England.

Q. Is it an easier sell to the different teams to come over to the O2 each time now because they obviously see coverage of the games that have happened before?
COMMISSIONER STERN: They see coverage and they hear reports back from a player's perspective. It's important the way they're treated. We treat them well. But the fans of our players treat them very well. And the amenities of the 02 Arena are just first class. So the combination is really terrific.
There's no shortage of video games for them to play when they're there either. So that takes care of that (laughter).
Everything is good. The experience in O2 and the UK is a very positive one for our players and for our teams and for us at the league level. So this is a relationship we very much want to continue and grow.

Q. Do you think because of the way basketball is structured as opposed to something over here such as soccer or rugby, do you see if you brought a regular-season game over, when that happens, do you think it will be more than one game? Do you see a two- or three-night stay?
COMMISSIONER STERN: In my crystal ball, which I'm here sort of palming now, I see one game, but I see that growing into something larger. I don't know exactly what form that will take, but I think one game - if it is one game - will ultimately lead to a series.

Q. David, I understand there are two games being played in Europe this year, one in London, and where is the other going to be?
COMMISSIONER STERN: You know I'm not allowed to announce that yet. Actually, we're in discussions with a couple of potential venues.
We will play a second game. There are many choices. But we haven't finalized, and we want to be able to finalize plans before we make the announcement.

Q. Is it likely to be the same two teams or will you be flying over two different teams?
COMMISSIONER STERN: You know, in this situation that we're in, it would be better for us to have either the two teams play each other or even one of the teams play a team that's based outside the United States. We're considering a variety of options.

Q. Just curious why the Utah Jazz specifically and also the Chicago Bulls? What is the process of selecting the NBA teams to participate?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Well, we actually are in constant dialogue with NBA teams about this, and we attempt to rotate it on a basis that every three years we try to take a team.
The Bulls, of course, are a natural because Luol Deng will be participating for the UK team in 2012. Indeed, this summer there will be a four-team tournament at O2 on the international circuit, which will include the UK team with Luol projected to play.
We've been having dialogue with the Jazz for many years. We wanted them to go earlier. They wanted to go, but we had some issues with respect to the market into which they were planning to go. So they've been teed up for a while.
They have a great international roster. They have terrific young players. They are a perennial playoff team, with a coach who has a little bit of experience. Fans around the world know Jerry Sloan. So the Jazz are a natural team for us and have been. We've been working with them for a very long time.

Q. It's easy to see there are becoming less games played in Europe for each of these NBA live tours, and now it seems we're down to two teams with possibly a local team. Is this year's sparse participation based on the economy?
COMMISSIONER STERN: I think it's based upon our own sort of sense of what most efficiently achieves our goals. Our goals are to be in the market, have a partnership that projects EA Sports' business, work on a partnership as well with the Euro league basketball. There will also be, I would expect, subsequent announcements, not only of a second game in Europe but games and teams in Asia.
So we're constantly balancing. You go a little stronger when you get yourself established. But when you get into a rotation, it isn't necessary to do quite as much.
This is consistent with what we did last year as well, because the year before we have training camps, and we thought that was not necessary to where we're going. So last year we did it without training camps. This year we think two teams, two games, achieves all of the goals that we set out to do.

Q. Can you comment on the MVP race. There's three guys with no clear winner. How exciting is this for you and for the fans of the NBA?
COMMISSIONER STERN: Every so often I realize why our fans turn to us to take their minds off their woes and focus so they can imagine sort of the big picture here.
Before I turn in for the night, I look at the results. I see we've got so many teams vying for second place in our West. The battle for the eighth team in the East, the positioning between Miami and Atlanta. We're having the most extraordinary competitive season at the playoff live who makes it, at the highest level for what teams we think can go all the way, and of course at the superstar level, whether it's Kobe, LeBron, Dwight Howard. And I love it because I think it incentivizes others.
Tim Duncan and the San Antonio Spurs are saying, What about us? Yao Ming, leading the resurgent Rockets, is scratching his head and saying, I think I deserve some conversation, but there's nothing. And, of course, Kevin Garnett saying, I may have been injured, but wait till I'm fresh in the playoffs and see what I can do.
I think it's a fan's delight and we intend to capture that energy and bring it to Europe with us.

Q. The NHL and the NFL have also tried to come into the London market with regular-season games. Do you feel you are in competition with them to pick up the more casual fans or do you feel there's room for all three associations to make impacts?
COMMISSIONER STERN: I haven't focused that much on them, other than to watch the games and enjoy their success. I think that their success begets our success, as well. But as we were happy to tell, as many of you who would listen, our research tells us that.
Sophie, help me out in terms of the number of fans we have among youngsters. We are number two in the hearts and minds of a very significant swath of UK youth.
SOPHIE: Basketball is the number two played team sport for under 18s, and third overall in the UK.
COMMISSIONER STERN: So we see ourselves continuing to make inroads on that front. That's why we are so delighted to partner with EA Sports, which is exactly targeting that group. And, frankly, we don't mind that EA Sports has a successful award-winning FIFA game. That just shows how special they are and how they know how to speak to our fans.
So we see such enormous room for growth for all sports that we cheer when the NFL sells out or when the NHL goes into the O2 and sells out. We think that's a positive thing for us.

Q. Peter, about Luol specifically, I think I'm right in saying you had him on the front of your game for the first time this year, this season. I know the recession is biting the rest of it. Have you noticed that that helps your sales? What sort of figure do you see Luol becoming in the next few years before the Olympics in terms of his marketability in Britain?
PETER MOORE: David referenced FIFA. We have taken the direction for a while with our FIFA franchise of really regionalizing the covers and making sure we try to get relevant athletes for the particular country. The same with our NBA live franchise. So we're watching very carefully.
It's too early to announce who our 2010 Live Athlete is going to be. We're watching the playoffs and hoping Luol gets better soon. But the ability for us to be able to kind of wait a little bit and then see, whereas we start shipping in Spain, Italy, France and Germany, of course, having had the Nowitzkis of this world on covers, more recently using Gasol and Tony Parker, using these athletes regionally. The richness of the nations represented in the NBA gives us as good a pallet of players as it does for our FIFA franchise.
We're watching exactly what's going on and making sure that we have the right athlete for the right country. Luol helped us obviously enormously in the UK and we'll take a look at him again for this year.

Q. Do you see him becoming a major figure in British sport? Do you see Luol becoming a big player?
PETER MOORE: Yeah, I think anytime you have a Brit that goes abroad and is successful. I've been gone a long time. But, gosh, I remember NFL kickers, guys who play football back home, then have gone over. John Smith for the Patriots. I know David will remember Smith, because he was the guy that they cleared the snow when he was playing the Dolphins, you probably remember that. You and I are the only ones old enough on this call to remember that.
The ability of Brits to go abroad and be successful, I think we tend to celebrate them back home even better than the guys who perform well back home.
I live in the Bay Area. One of my favorite players, I'm a big Warriors fan, Kelenna Azubuike. I got to meet him. First of all, an outstanding human being, a special young man, and a very exciting player.
Luol is doing very well and is going to be the figurehead for British basketball. I think there's a bunch of other guys that can supplement him on the British team going forward. We are excited about the potential of having a decent team in the Olympics.
COMMISSIONER STERN: I would like to add one thing in the conversation about Luol. I don't want to overlook the fact that the Bulls have a team that's competing for the playoff, and it's led by, talk about an MVP or Rookie-of-the-Year candidate, in Derrick Rose, who is impressing our league greatly, together with Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich, a lot of other talented young and not-so-young players. So we're bringing a couple of exciting teams to London with very long rosters of very good players.

Q. David, it is obviously the Bulls' first trip overseas since 1997. I'm curious of what your memories are of that experience, because that was in the infancy stages of you trying to grow the game internationally.
COMMISSIONER STERN: Was there a guy named Jordan on that trip (laughter)?
The two things I remember, they're sort of only quasi related, Dennis Rodman was on the team then, as well, I believe. So one was the lights go down and the background noise to the Bulls introduction starts. We had brought the PA announcer with us, Ray Clay. 16,000 fans in Bercy knew exactly what was coming. It was as though they had queued up. You got this enormous sense that this was one world, one game. They knew it. It was wonderful.
The second is, after the game, the Prime Minister wanted to go down to the locker room to meet Dennis. That was it. Obviously, the Bulls were just the rage. Talk about traveling with rock stars. It was great.
And they were engulfed by fans with admiration, a little bit of love, and they very much returned it. The cameras that were busy flashing in the arena when the lights did go down for the introduction, it was wonderfully blinding. It was just a great experience.

Q. David, just setting aside the short-term benefit from bringing a pre-season game over to London, where do you think the NBA can help basketball in the United Kingdom without sort of getting in the way or overrunning what's there already?
COMMISSIONER STERN: What we're trying to do is help grow the sport at the grassroots level. I think that Sophie, with her colleagues on this phone call, is leading our relationship with so many different organizations that have acronyms that somehow relate back to basketball. We sit at the table with them. We hold instructional clinics. We have met with the representatives of those organizations when they come to the U.S. and have set forth a table of things that we can do, if asked.
For us it's, How can we be supportive to help grow the game at the grassroots level? We will certainly also be working, if the UK team wishes to do some things, which the other teams have done, visit the U.S., play in summer league or against some of our development league teams, what have you. We've given them the list.
Sophie, want to help me out a little bit?
SOPHIE: I think you've covered most of the areas. Like you said, just working closely with the different entities, specifically British performance basketball and English basketball, et cetera, and very focused on grass-roots as well as helping the national team prepare for the different competitions.
COMMISSIONER STERN: We think that the UK is going to warm very much to the sport when they watch a team that represents the UK. So the Olympics are an important event for us. People are going to get to see it played. They're going to have a home team hopefully in it. But whatever the result may be competitively, they're going to get a chance to see some of the best basketball players in the world gathering on their own stage.
And in response to the question that Peter was asked about Luol and his importance. To me, names like Nowitzki and Parker and Gasol come to mind, where when you have a citizen from another country making his mark in the NBA, it does very much help the sport in that country.

Q. How pessimistic or optimistic are you about avoiding a lockout in 2011? Do you think that would impact the preparations for the 2012 Olympics?
COMMISSIONER STERN: We're optimistic that we are going to be here functioning and that we will retain the Collective Bargaining piece that has characterized the NBA's relationship with our union for the last decade.
I think that our Collective Bargaining Agreement still has two and a half years to run. I just don't see any great purpose, given recent events where things change from one year to the next, to be speculating about what will happen - good or bad - in two and a half years, other than the fact that I'm willing to speculate that the Olympics will occur and they'll be good. Other than that, I hope and I think we'll be able to take steps to avoid any shutdown.

Q. The second game, do you have any kind of timetable when you might have that finalized?
COMMISSIONER STERN: I think we hope to have that finalized within the next couple weeks.
Thanks, everyone, for being interested. I know there's an announcement coming saying this is going to be available on mediacentral.com.
CHRIS WALLACE: Thank you, David.
COMMISSIONER STERN: Thank you, Peter, and Electronic Arts, for all you do for our sport.
PETER MOORE: Our pleasure, David. Thanks, everyone.
CHRIS WALLACE: Thank you, everyone, for joining the call.

End of FastScripts

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